Avalanche terrain in the Caribou Basin/Snake Creek backcountry above Midway, Utah, where a 45-year-old snowbiker was killed after triggering a large hard-slab avalanche Sunday, Feb. 22, 2026, authorities said. Photo: Utah Avalanche Center Photo: Utah Avalanche Center

SALT LAKE CITY, UT — A 45-year-old Salt Lake City man was killed Sunday, Feb. 22, after triggering a large avalanche while snowbiking in the upper reaches of Caribou Basin in the Snake Creek area above Midway, according to the Utah Avalanche Center and the Wasatch County Sheriff’s Office.

Search and rescue teams were dispatched after the avalanche was reported around 4:30 p.m., but unstable conditions limited access to the debris field, and the search was suspended for the night.

Similar Reads On TownLift

Operations resumed about 7 a.m. Monday, Feb. 23, beginning with avalanche mitigation to allow crews to safely enter the slide path. The man was located shortly before 9 a.m. with assistance from Wasatch County Search and Rescue, Utah Department of Public Safety’s Aero Bureau, and Wasatch Backcountry Rescue K9 teams, the sheriff’s office said.

Avalanche debris and track marks are visible on a steep, wind-loaded slope in Caribou Basin above Midway, where a snowbiker was caught, carried and fully buried in a large hard-slab avalanche Sunday, Feb. 22, 2026, according to the Utah Avalanche Center. Photo: Utah Avalanche Center

The Utah Avalanche Center described the slide as a “very large” hard-slab avalanche on a northeast-facing slope at approximately 9,600 feet, with an estimated slope angle of 36 degrees — roughly 3 feet deep, 500 feet wide, and running approximately 900 vertical feet. The rider was caught, carried, and fully buried.

Recovery efforts were complicated by the fact that the buried rider did not have a detectable avalanche transceiver signal. His body was recovered on Monday morning.

A map shows the Caribou Basin/Snake Creek backcountry area above Midway, Utah, where a snowbiker was killed after triggering a large avalanche Sunday, Feb. 22, 2026, according to the Utah Avalanche Center and the Wasatch County Sheriff’s Office. Image: Utah Avalanche Center/Google Maps

Forecasters said the avalanche failed on a persistent weak layer of faceted snow — weak, sugary grains — beneath recent storm snow on a steep, heavily wind-loaded slope. A Special Avalanche Bulletin was in effect at the time, with an overall danger rating of considerable and conditions in which “large, destructive, and potentially deadly slab avalanches” were likely.

Sunday’s death was the second fatal avalanche in the Snake Creek area within a week. A snowmobiler was killed around 4 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 18, after an avalanche struck the Big Flat area near Snake Creek, west of Midway.