Snowbird, UT – An avalanche in an open in-bounds portion of Snowbird Ski & Summer Resort in Utah sent a 24-year-old snowboarder to a Salt Lake City area hospital on Sunday.

The unidentified male victim was riding in the resort’s west-facing Blackjack area early on Sunday afternoon when the slide broke loose, leaving him partially buried. Investigators indicate that the two- to three-foot deep avalanche was 80 feet wide and ran for about 600 feet. The area had been open for three to four hours already on Sunday when the avalanche occurred, and mitigation efforts were performed on the area following Friday’s snowfall.

The victim was transported to Intermountain Medical Center in Murray, Utah, where he was treated for what has been reported as non-life threatening injuries. The incident occurred a short distance down the Peruvian ridgeline from the location of the Dec. 14, 2008 in-bounds avalanche at Snowbird that killed 24-year-old Heather Gross of Salt Lake City.

Separately, avalanches caused by daytime heating in the White Pine area of Little Cottonwood Canyon closed Utah Highway 210, the only route in or out for patrons of both Snowbird and neighboring Alta Ski Area, shortly before noon on Sunday. While the road reopened at 4 p.m. following helicopter-based avalanche control efforts, a busy weekend at both resorts kept traffic exiting the canyon snarled for an additional two hours. A backcountry avalanche in nearby Millcreek Canyon also buried a skier under three feet of snow on Sunday, but the victim was quickly located by his skiing partners and he was able to ski out under his own power.