1 skier found dead in Idaho avalanche after 2 others rescued
By Paradise Afshar, CNN
(CNN) — A skier was found dead after an avalanche in a backcountry area of Shoshone County, Idaho, officials said, in a week of snow-related accidents across the West and Northwest.
Corey J. Zalewski was found and extracted from the area Friday afternoon, according to the Shoshone County Sheriff’s Office.
“Our thoughts and prayers go out to Corey’s family as they are remembering the life of this great man,” the sheriff’s office said in a statement on Facebook.
Three skiers were caught in the avalanche and two were found alive, Capt. Seth Green told CNN.
Rescue workers found the two – Landon E. Crecelius and David R. Sittser – near Steven’s Peak after getting in contact with the individuals via a GPS device that also enabled texting.
“We were able to coordinate with the two individuals, one of which reported having a broken arm,” Green said. “And the third at the time was still in the vicinity of the avalanche.”
Rescuers found the pair amid rough weather conditions, and got them medical care, Green said.
“Once we got them to medical care, we got the information, pretty definitively, leading us to believe that the third individual is deceased up on the hill where the avalanche occurred,” Green said on Thursday. “Due to this information, we are not continuing our effort tonight due to the safety of everyone involved. We plan on doing a recovery mission tomorrow.”
The Kootenai County Sheriff’s Office and the US Air Force assisted in the rescue mission.
Shoshone County is located about three hours from Spokane, Washington.
Also on Thursday, the occupants of two vehicles were rescued after being stuck in an avalanche on State Highway 21 in Boise, according to a news release from the Idaho Transportation Department.
“We are relieved to report that all occupants were safely rescued by first responders from Custer County and Boise County,” the Boise County Sheriff’s Office said in a Facebook post.
Earlier this week, a skier was killed and another person was injured in an avalanche at a Lake Tahoe-area ski resort in California, authorities said.
The avalanche occurred on Wednesday morning at Palisades Tahoe, a popular ski resort that draws in scores of visitors each year, and quickly prompted a search and rescue effort by multiple teams for potential victims, the Placer County Sheriff’s Office said. More than 100 resort personnel assisted in the search, Palisades Tahoe said in a statement.
The avalanche occurred in an area that had just opened in the morning and that underwent rigorous “avalanche control assessments” for several days from teams who also evaluated weather conditions and safety measures, said Michael Gross, Palisades Tahoe’s vice president of mountain operations, during a news conference on Wednesday.
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