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Posted: 8:19 AM- Search and rescue crews looking for a skier missing since Wednesday discovered tracks this morning that end at the edge of a "fairly significant" avalanche.
The discovery was made from the air, because the avalanche danger in Big Cottonwood Canyon's backcountry is still too great to send people in, according to Salt Lake County Sheriff's Lt. Paul Jaroscak.
The missing 39-year-old from Norway might have been carrying an avalanche beacon when he was last seen around 1:45 p.m. Thursday. Jaroscak said crews were waiting for a powerful beacon receiver to be flown in for use in the seach.
Even if a signal is picked up, search and rescue personnel will have to wait for avalanche control to be done before they venture into the area, he said.
The search began about 7:45 p.m. Wednesday at Butler Fork trailhead using snowmobiles and two helicopters, the Salt Lake County Sheriff's Office reported. Investigators also tried to contact the man on his cell phone, but there has been no answer.
The man and a married couple he knows went to the trailhead at 9 a.m. Wednesday. They split up in the afternoon. The man said he was heading toward the north face of Gobbler's Knob, sheriff's Lt. Rod Norton said. The trio was supposed to meet back at the trailhead at 4 p.m., but the Norwegian never showed up.
The couple called 911 about 6:40 p.m. and told authorities they hadn't seen their friend since about 1:45 p.m.
The tracks discovered today run along a ridge and into a basin, then end at a fracture and slide, Jaroscak said.
As a colleague on the mountain put it to him, "'We have tracks going into an avalanche. Something or somebody is up there,'" the lieutenant said.
High winds have prompted the Forest Service Utah Avalanche Center to request a backcountry avalanche warning for the mountains of northern and central Utah, according to the National Weather Service.
Avalanche danger is expected to rise from considerable to high on any slope with recent wind deposits steeper than 30 degrees, according to the service. A snow storm forecast for Friday means the avalanche danger will last through the weekend.
About 20 rescuers are waiting at a command post at the Butler Fork trailhead command center, but Jaroscak said it will be "quite some time before we begin search and rescue on the mountain."