Father feared son would die in snowboard accident

DENVER John Backowski says he feared for his son's life when the young man went snowboarding.

Backowski tells the Denver Post he would talk to his son after every report of an avalanche to make sure 25-year-old Collin Backowski of Pine Junction, Colo., was safe.

The expert snowboarder and five of his companions were traveling on Mount Hood in Oregon when an ice tunnel collapsed Saturday, killing the young man.

The friends were not hurt and tried to dig him out, but could not break through the ice and snow, which an official described as being as thick as concrete, with Backowski trapped under a piece "school-bus-sized."

Rescuers quickly responded but halted efforts about 11 p.m. Saturday, then resumed early Sunday morning. The rescuers, armed with chain saws and other tools, chipped away at tons of ice and snow to recover the body.

Hood River Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Tiffany Peterson said that after removing tons of debris by hand, searchers found Backowski where he had been buried by 8 to 10 feet of snow and ice.

None of the searchers or other snowboarders was injured, Peterson said.

The ice tunnel was on the White River Glacier, which begins about 6,000 feet up the south side of the mountain.

The group of six snowboarders - ranging in ages from 24 to 29 years old - were in the area looking for places to snowboard and film, deputies told CBS affiliate KOIN in Portland.

The men found an area where the glacier meets a rock talus slope and had tunnel was formed from melting.

Backowski entered the tunnel with some of the other men, officials told KOIN.

It was reported that when the tunnel collapsed, the two other men who were inside, were struck by falling ice. Neither of those men was injured.

Warm temperatures made snow on the mountain slushier and more easily sloughed off the surface, adding to the challenge of attempting to reach the snowboarder.