Snowboarder Killed in Ice Tunnel Collapse

Trapped when bus-size hunk of ice fell on him
By Polly Davis Doig,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 4, 2013 7:47 AM CDT
Updated Aug 4, 2013 5:44 PM CDT
Fort Hood Ice Tunnel Collapses, Buries Snowboarder
Mount Hood looms over Highway 26 near Sandy, Ore., in this December 14, 2011, file photo. The search is resuming this morning for a snowboarder buried when an ice tunnel collapsed.   (AP Photo/Don Ryan)

The body of a snowboarder trapped when an ice tunnel collapsed on Oregon's Mount Hood yesterday has been recovered. For almost five hours, rescuers used chainsaws to cut through a collapsed chunk of ice the size of a school bus in order to reach 25-year-old Collin Backowski, reports the Oregonian, but hopes of survival were considered slim.

Backowski and five friends entered the tunnel while out taking photos and video on Hood's White River Glacier yesterday. Two others were injured in the collapse, but only Backowski, who was about 30 to 40 feet ahead of the others, was trapped, reports USA Today. "He chose to live out there on the edge with the snowboarding and I obviously wanted more from him," his father told NBC News. "I would never try to take it away from him. He loved it." (More Mount Hood stories.)

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