The Deschutes County Medical Examiner's Office has determined that Kate Svitek, the snowboarder who was found dead on Mount Bachelor on Monday, died of asphyxiation.

Kate Svitek, 22, of Bend had been missing since Feb. 9 when she was separated from her friends while snowboarding in the Northwest Territory. Hundreds of searchers combed the area for nine days after she turned up missing. Ski patrol and search and rescue workers from three different states, joined by National Guard helicopters, spent thousands of hours looking for the woman. But after no results, the search was scaled back Feb. 18.
A two-person search team from the Mount Bachelor Ski Patrol spotted a portion of her snowboard near a tree well on the northwest section of the butte.

In a previous interview with The Bulletin, Deschutes County Sheriff Les Stiles said it appears she caught the edge of her board and fell head-first into a tree well. The snowboard dislodged a large chunk of ice and snow, which fell onto her snowboard, immobilizing her.
The tree well had been previously searched, but given the manner in which Svitek was buried, and the large amounts of snow covering her, Stiles said it made her very difficult to find. Since then, snow has been melting on the mountain. Warm weather has reduced the snow base from about 150 inches at the time of the search to about 130 inches on Monday.