A 25-year-old snowboarder when the snow tunnel he was in exploring collapsed. Collin Backowski was in the tunnel with five friends when the roof fell in on them, trapping him under a bus-sized chunk of ice. His friends managed to escape from the cave.
The Executive Director of the High Cascade Snowboard Camp, where Backowski was working for the summer as an instructor, said that the group wasn’t “doing anything extreme” at the time of the accident.
“I’ve seen these stories painted as extreme snowboarders needing to fulfill their adrenaline rush, and that’s not what it was,” said Kevin English. “They were essentially going out to explore the mountain and look at it, and they were fascinated by it.”
Backowski, originally of Pine, Colorado, had gone to work as a snowboard instructor and professional rider after graduating from high school, and qualified for the X Games at one point.
Via