A Mount Bachelor ski patrol discovered the body of 22-year-old missing snowboarder Kate Svitek Monday afternoon at about 12:30 p.m., according to authorities, after more than three weeks of searching. The Upper Dublin woman disappeared Feb. 9 while making a run on the Bend, Ore. Mountain.
According to Oregon's Deschutes County Sheriff Les Stiles, two two-person teams were on patrol when they spotted the edge of a snowboard and what appeared to be a boot sticking out of the snow inside a tree well, which is the drifted-out area immediately surrounding a tree. The spot where Svitek was found was about 370 yards from the point where she was last seen, the sheriff said.

Svitek was snowboarding down the mountain in an area known as the Northwest Territory. What likely happened, Stiles said, is Svitek went over a small rise and "caught some air" and then plunged headfirst into the tree well, where a large chunk of snow on the ground collapsed on top of her.
"It appears as though either the impact or the snowboard edge may have cut it [the chunk] loose," he said. Unless someone was able to reach her within minutes of the accident, Stiles believes it would have been difficult to rescue Svitek. "I'm not even sure one person would have been able to get to Kate in time," he said. "It would have taken two people an incredible amount of work and effort."

The exact cause of death was not known as of Tuesday. Stiles expected to meet with other area officials that afternoon to determine whether the medical examination would be conducted in Deschutes County or in Portland. Criminal cases are typically handled by the Portland office, he said, while all other examinations are performed at the county level.

Throughout the investigation, the sheriff said the incident was treated as a missing persons case and there is absolutely no evidence of foul play. "It is very apparent this was a tragic accident," he said. Searchers were "99 percent certain" they had previously probed the tree well where Svitek was found, according to Stiles. However, with her body in a vertical position, they would have had to pinpoint about a two-foot square area, he said. "By dark that night, the day [the accident] happened, we wouldn't have been able to tell it," he said. "She was quite literally invisible."

From this case, Stiles said he learned that these kinds of snowboarding accidents happen more frequently than he was previously aware. What happens, he said, is a person's feet are locked onto the board and it is difficult to get into a position to release it.

According to Dan Swearingen, acting search and rescue coordinator for the Deschutes County Sheriff's Department, Monday discovery was made after about 20 inches of snow melted during a warm spell in the Bend area. In the tree well where Svitek was found, the snow was about 8-feet deep at its highest point and about 5-feet deep at its lowest, he said.