More than 20 strangers jumped in to help family members, ski patrollers and police search for the 11-year-old girl suddenly caught in a backcountry avalanche Thursday just outside the boundaries of Brighton Ski Resort.
But it was the girl’s brother who “heroically” found her, using an app to zero in on her location, according to the Unified Police Department.
Identified late Friday as Madelyn Eitas, of Rochester, Massachusetts, she was discovered in critical condition before she later died, police said.
Madelyn and her family had entered the popular out-of-bounds area known as the Rock Garden when she was swept up along the slide path, according to police.
Authorities received word of the avalanche at 12:29 p.m., and within three minutes, Unified Police and Fire Department crews were organizing a response.
By then, Brighton and Solitude ski patrollers with Wasatch Backcountry Rescue had already initiated rescue efforts, and the girl’s family — along with other helpers who happened to be in the area — were searching, too.
After Cameron Eitas ultimately found his sister, though, a medical transport helicopter couldn’t land in the area because of the hazardous conditions, police said.
Rescue personnel worked on the girl at the scene before loading her into an ambulance and heading to a hospital. Police drove her family members.
“Despite the tremendous and exhaustive efforts of family, first responders and hospital medical staff,” police said in a news release late Friday, “the victim tragically passed away.”
Officials added that their “thoughts are with the victim’s family during this incredibly difficult time.”
“The communities here in Utah, as well as the family’s home community in Massachusetts, now have the important responsibility of rallying around the family to provide support, compassion, and comfort in the times ahead,” the news release concluded.
The child’s death came a day after a man was killed Wednesday in a backcountry avalanche near Snake Creek in the Wasatch Mountains while snowmobiling with his son.
Nikki Champion, a forecaster with the Utah Avalanche Center, said more than 40 avalanches have been reported in backcountry areas outside the Salt Lake Valley over the last few days, including “several close calls.”
Avalanche danger remains high through the weekend, the Utah Avalanche Center warned Friday.
In January, also just outside of Brighton’s boundaries, two teens skiing in the Hidden Canyon backcountry area were caught in an avalanche that partially buried one and completely buried the other.
Both survived after rescuers were able to dig them out. Neither was wearing avalanche gear, officials noted in a report.