Snowboarder, 45, killed in a Utah backcountry avalanche that buried him

By Erin Alberty
By Kolbie Peterson

Published: 23 hours ago
Updated: 2 hours ago

A 45-year-old snowboarder died in the backcountry Sunday after he was buried in an avalanche, according to the Utah Avalanche Center.

Raymond M. Tauszik, from Salt Lake City, left Canyons Village in Park City via a backcountry exit gate at the top of the 9990 lift to access Dutch Draw. He triggered the avalanche about noon as he headed down a northeast slope near the steep, rocky Conehead area of Dutch Draw, at about 9,600 feet elevation, the avalanche center reported.

Tauszik was riding alone and was not wearing an avalanche beacon, said Greg Gagne, forecaster with the avalanche center. Other skiers noticed his board in the avalanche and deduced that someone had been buried, Gagne said.
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On the day of the accident, the Utah Avalanche Center said the danger of avalanches in the Salt Lake area was “considerable.” It advised recreationists Sunday to avoid “steep northwest to easterly facing terrain at the mid and upper elevations,” where the danger is “most pronounced.”

The center described the Conehead as prone to avalanches. It was the site of a fatality in 2012 and another in 2005, when crews searched for days after multiple skiers were unaccounted for immediately after the chaos of the slide; however, only one person was believed to have died in that incident.
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