Four lost snowboarders rescued

The Daily Inter Lake

Four young men from Minnesota were rescued and reportedly doing fine Sunday after they got lost while snowboarding Saturday afternoon at Whitefish Mountain Resort.

Flathead Search and Rescue coordinator Jordan White said the snowboarders, all about 20 years of age, were treated in the field by the Nordic Ski Patrol when searchers first found them in the Hellroaring Creek drainage and then were rewarmed at the ski patrol's clinic about 3 p.m. Saturday when they left the chair lift and skied out of bounds, White said. They spent a couple hours trying to work their way down the drainage before calling for help just before dark.

White said Flathead Search and Rescue got the call at about 5 p.m. and reached the scene at about 6:30 p.m. Nordic Ski Patrol and Big Mountain Ski Patrol joined in the search.

Searchers found the four at about 9 p.m., White said, and discovered that two of the snowboarders had fallen into the creek. The cold, wet men changed into dry clothes that rescuers had brought along with them and spent some time warming at the site before walking out with the search team on snowshoes that the team had carried in.

At about 10:30 p.m. they reached the bottom of Chair 8, where rescuers called in to report that the men had been found. The party made it to the ski patrol's clinic at about 1:15 a.m. Sunday, where the Minnesotans were rewarmed and then released.

White said the snowboarders were very cold and in tough shape when they were found. But all turned out for the good.

"It was a great, great effort and a great rescue," White said.