Feb. 25, 2000
A near disaster today on the ski slopes of Northern Utah.
An avalanche broke loose around noon at Snowbasin Ski Resort. A group of skiers got caught in the snowslide.
News Specialist John Daley reports.
This was a very close call.
A party of six skiers was heading down together when they got caught up the avalanche.
Two were completely buried, another pair were partially buried.
It happened at high altitude (near 9000 feet) in the Strawberry Bowl area, just off to the east from the top of the Strawberry Express Gondola.
This week Snowbasin got nailed with its biggest snowstorm of the season--upwards of 2 feet in the past 30 hours.
In Strawberry Bowl, someone up above accidentally triggered the 200-yard snowslide and it swept down on the group of six.
Jeff Harrison, a doctor with both Snowbasin and the U.S. Ski Team, was buried in the slide. Once he got out, he quickly helped get other skiers organized to dig the others out.
Harrison suffered frostbite on his ear and his fingers.
A woman caught in the slide suffered a knee injury.
An official with Snowbasin called the avalanche--which happened within ski area boundaries--a freak accident--saying the area had been blasted with explosives and checked by the ski patrol earlier in the morning.
Some ski resorts are closing some of their slopes because of the avalanche warning.
Snowbird has closed about half of its ski slopes to do avalanche control work.
But the Gad Valley IS OPEN at Snowbird, and they expect nearly all runs will be open Saturday.
Solitude also reports a 15- percent closure for avalanche control.
Alta and Brighton have no areas closed for avalanche control at this time.
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