The Salt Lake City Unified Police Department received a phone call at 11:40 am on Saturday and then received a report that an avalanche had occurred in the Wilson Basin area with five people arrested, according to the sergeant. Melody Cutler, a police department public information officer.
Two groups of skiers, one of three and one of five, started skiing on the mountain at the same time and authorities believe the avalanche was caused by group skiing, Cutler said.
“Four of those skiers managed to dig their way,” said Cutler. “All the remaining four are dead.”
Skiers are aged between 20 and 30, according to Cutler. A Life Flight rescue service was called in to transport survivors out of the area, and a flyby was conducted to determine whether it is safe for rescue workers to remove the dead tonight, Cutler said.
The location where the avalanche took place is “a very popular inland ski area,” Cutler told CNN, adding that “it has recently been under high risk avalanche conditions”.
Wilson Basin is located near Mill Creek Canyon, about 20 miles southwest of Salt Lake City.
Utah Governor Spencer Cox responded to Saturday’s deaths on Twitter, calling them “terrible tragedy”.
“We deeply regret the loss of life due to this devastating incident,” said Wilson.
The four are the latest in a series of avalanche deaths in three states, bringing the death toll to nine.