Two brothers are lucky to be alive this holiday season after being caught in an avalanche that buried their brother under the snow.
The avalanche occurred on Christmas Eve in the Steppe Hollow area of Franklin Basin in Cache County. Fox 13 News Utah reported.
The local TV station said the men were riding snowmobiles when one of them caused the avalanche.
One of the brothers was carried about 150 yards before being completely buried, according to a police incident report Utah Avalanche Center.
5 members of the Utah family were found dead inside the house
The men involved in the Christmas Eve avalanche were outfitted with backcountry travel gear, according to FOX 13 News Utah. (Utah Avalanche Center)
“He was recovered by his brother, who used a transceiver to get close enough to see a few fingers of a gloved hand sticking out of the snow,” the report said.
The height of the avalanche was about 9,000 feet. The incident report said the area where the incident occurred had a “persistent understory.”
The avalanche occurred at an elevation of 9,000 feet, according to a notice from the Utah Avalanche Center. (Utah Avalanche Center)
“I could see his hand and his gloves and he was waving and waving,” Braeden Hansen told NBC News of his brother Hunter. “But when I got to him, he was about two feet tall, and his head was about two feet under the snow.”
“I just got the snow off his head and took his helmet off so he could breathe again and then I started getting his body out of there,” he said.
After one man pulled his brother out of the snow, the two men got into a snowmobile and headed out into the countryside. (Utah Avalanche Center)
Then the two doubled over and rode off out of the back country, The avalanche center said.
The brother who was buried suffered minor injuries, according to Fox 13.
“These guys got very lucky on Christmas Eve,” Toby Wade, a meteorologist at the Utah Avalanche Center, told the local station. “No. 1, always Access and read forecasts. “The forecast that day was for a major avalanche because it's an avalanche hazard, and that's actually the same danger that exists here in Logan today.”
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Avalanche dangers in the mountains of northern Utah and southeastern Idaho are becoming “extensive” heading into the weekend, according to the avalanche center.
