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Missing skier found at 10,000-foot level

Tribune News Service

Searchers located and are in the process of retrieving the body of a skier, who’s been missing in Mono County for nearly two weeks.

Boris Avdeev, 31, of Ann Arbor, Mich., an experienced backcountry skier, has not been heard from since setting out on his solo backcountry ski trip on April 19.

His body was found on Thursday and members of an ice rescue team with a dozen members from Douglas County and El Dorado counties responded to help retrieve the body from steep, icy terrain located at the 10,670-foot level.



“It can only be accessed by members using ropes and crampons, so it could take some time to get the body down the hill,” said Douglas County Sheriff’s spokesman Jim Halsey.

The search began on Tuesday when a passer-by reported Avdeev’s black Honda Civic parked along Highway 120 about a third of the way between Highway 395 and Tioga Pass.



Deputies found a note under the windshield wiper that Avdeev was heading up Mount Dana Couloir for the day to ski down Cocaine Chute.

With the warmer temperatures, even in the higher elevations, snow conditions have been affected and several avalanches have been seen in this area over the past several weeks.

On Wednesday, Mono County Sheriff’s Search and Rescue ground teams were dispatched to the Cocaine Chute area to start performing a lower chute search to see if they could locate Avdeev. The ground teams were unable to locate him.

On Thursday, additional resources were requested including a helicopter from Fallon Air Station, two rescue dog teams, and a mutual aid request for Inyo County Sheriff’s and Yosemite Search and Rescue teams to help aid in the search efforts.


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