The two snowboarders who went missing outside Wolf Creek Ski Area last winter were finally found. The two men had gotten lost in the backcountry, or possibly sidecountry, just before the biggest snow storm of the year in early January. As I recall, they got one cell phone call out, then nothing more.

I was at Wolf Creek a couple weeks later and the locals were buzzing with rumors the men had been abducted or something. It never seemed very likely to me -  Wolf Creek Pass was closed for a week after that storm. I was skiing on a foot of fresh powder three days after the pass finally reopened.

At the time, I remember reading some speculation - on Dawson’s site, or maybe TGR -  that the men got bogged down in deep snow. There’s not enough information from the story to tell if this contributed, but the theory then was that snowboards can simply become dangerous in the backcountry because you can’t hop your way out of a bad situation, whereas even an ordinary alpine setup will at least keep you shuffling on top of the snow. An argument for splitboards, I suppose.

Anyway, this is a very sad legacy of a really great winter.

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