Snowboarder Dies In Donner Avalanche

by The Editors on December 24, 2012

Steven Mark Anderson, 49, a snowboarder from Hirschadale, California ,died today (December 24, 2012) at Donner Ski Ranch in an inbounds avalanche, according to a story in the Vancouver Sun.

The sheriff’s department received a call about the missing man at noon Monday, nearly three hours after the avalanche. Deputy David Lade said it took that long for Anderson’s friends to determine he was missing. The friends had not been skiing as a group, but rather went their own way in the morning, Lade said. . . “They spent a lot of time trying to locate him,” he said. . . A search dog found the man’s body about 1:30 p.m. under 2 to 3 feet of snow at the base of the avalanche. Lade said the wind had blown snow to depths to 7 feet or more where the man was snowboarding, which was inside the ski area’s boundaries near the main lodge.

The Donner Pass area has received close to eight feet of new snow over the last week. Alpine Meadows (which is no stranger to avalanches) had one ski patroller hospitalized after getting buried in a slide there on Monday during avalanche patrol and two other people were caught in a slide at Squaw Valley on Sunday.

Our thoughts are with Anderson’s family and friends. No one needs this news on Christmas eve.

[Link: Vancouver Sun]

{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }

Donner January 3, 2013 at 9:16 am

RIP Rocker

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