© Getty ImagesA competitor goes down the course during the 2010 Freestyle Skiing World Cup Ski Cross at Whiteface Mountain on January 23, 2010 in Lake Placid, New York.
An avalanche Saturday in the backcountry of Utah's Millcreek Canyon area killed four skiers and injured another four, authorities said.
The Unified Police Department said the skier-triggered avalanche occurred at an elevation of just under 10,000 feet. The four people killed were already dead by the time the four survivors were able to dig them out, according to The Associated Press.
Police have not yet released the name of either the dead or the survivors, according to the AP, but the Utah Avalanche Center's Drew Hardesty told The Salt Lake Tribune they were all experienced skiers with ties to the community. At least one of the survivors, the first taken off the mountain, had hypothermia, according to Kelly Vaughen, a journalist for Utah CBS affiliate KUTV.
The deaths tied the highest-known death toll for an avalanche in Utah. An earlier skier-triggered avalanche near Moab's Gold Basin killed four in 1992, while another avalanche killed four in the Wasatch Mountains in 1914, according to the newspaper.
Gov. Spencer Cox (R) took to Twitter over the weekend to warn skiers of current conditions in the mountains.
"We are grateful to the first responders and others who engaged in this rescue and recovery effort. With avalanche danger high right now, please exercise extreme caution," Cox tweeted.