Snowbird, UT – A 63-year-old Utah man died on Wednesday while skiing at Snowbird Ski and Summer Resort in Utah.
Lt. Justin Hoyal with the Unified Police Department of Greater Salt Lake tells First Tracks!! Online that his department was contacted by Snowbird Ski Patrol at 4:56 p.m. Wednesday, nearly an hour after the resort closes for the day, to notify them that they had located Sandy, Utah resident Charles Johanson near the base of the resort’s Little Cloud chairlift. Johanson died after presumably losing control and striking a tree.
Hoyal indicates that Johanson was skiing with a friend when the pair became separated at around 11:30 Wednesday morning. After searching unsuccessfully for Johanson, the friend notified Snowbird patrollers, who located the victim shortly after closing on Wednesday. He was reportedly wearing a helmet.
Hoyal indicates that the victim’s friend contacted Snowbird patrol about Johanson’s disappearance during the ski day, but Snowbird officials indicate that the search for Johanson wasn’t initiated until the lifts closed at 4 p.m. Hoyal didn’t know at what time Johanson’s friend first notified patrollers.
“Wednesday, January 7th a skier was reported missing by his group at Snowbird,” Snowbird Communications Manager Brian Brown confirmed this afternoon via email. “A mountain search was initiated at approximately 4 p.m. by Snowbird Ski Patrol to locate the skier. At approximately 4:10 p.m. Snowbird Ski Patrol located the individual near the base of the Little Cloud chairlift. The skier was unconscious and unresponsive when found.”
Brown referred all additional inquiries regarding Johanson’s death to Hoyal.
A search of Facebook indicates that Johanson, originally from Woodland, Calif., was the retired president of Great Basin Medical, Inc.