A Utah snowmobiler accidentally triggered an avalanche that buried his brother, whom he was able to save after spotting his fingers sticking out of the snow.
The brothers and their father were riding snowmobiles across the slopes in the Franklin Basin area of the Utah backcountry near the Idaho border, according to the Utah Avalanche Center.
One of the brothers was “side-hilling” beneath a cliff-band in Steep Hollow when he triggered the avalanche.
“I saw the snow ripple and knew that was an avalanche,” Braeden Hansen told NBC News . He was able to ride off the north flank of the avalanche safely.
But his brother, Hunter Hansen, who was standing next to his sled below the slope, was caught up in the avalanche and carried about 150 yards and buried.
“I turned around to watch the slide hit Hunter and just watched him kind of get tumbled and buried and then lost sight of him,” he said.
Braeden then used a transceiver that showed where his brother had been buried and was able to get close enough to “see a couple of fingers of a gloved hand sticking out of the snow,” according to the report.