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Jackson Hole Mountain Resort ski patrollers search the slopes below Paintbrush on Saturday shortly after an avalanche buried skier David Nodine, of Wilson.

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David Nodine

Friends and family on Sunday described David Nodine, the victim of an in-bounds avalanche Saturday at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort, as a joyous outdoorsman.

“David was everybody’s friend,” said wife Christine Nodine, 30. “He was so outgoing and so easy to be with, and his smile and laugh would just light up a room.”

David Nodine, 31, of Wilson, grew up in Greensboro, N.C., graduated from Colgate University and moved to Jackson Hole in 2005. In Wilson, he started his own company, Westbank Energy, and lived with Christine and dog Malcolm.

A memorial service is planned for Saturday afternoon.

Nodine died of suffocation, Teton County Coroner Bob Campbell said Sunday. He was buried in an avalanche on the Paintbrush trail at the resort.

Derek Foy, a friend who grew up with Nodine and attended high school with him, said he was mourning the loss and was thinking of the victim’s family, wife and friends.

“It’s a shocking and sad loss,” Foy said in a telephone interview Sunday from North Carolina. “He was a genuine, caring person who always had a smile on his face.”

Foy said Nodine enjoyed skiing when he lived in North Carolina and would take a couple of trips out West each year before moving here.

Nodine worked for Bear Stearns in Boston for three years and worked for energy companies in Dallas before moving to Jackson Hole, according to his family.

Officials at the resort said the avalanche occurred in an in-bounds area after Nodine and a companion exited the Paintbrush trail just below the Thunder lift. Photographs of the slide taken by skiers show searchers probing an area known as Toilet Bowl below the trail.

The avalanche occurred about 1:25 p.m. and carried Nodine and a friend about 200 yards, leaving the victim’s companion uninjured, according to a statement from resort officials.

Resort brand director Anna Olson said ski patrol had taken normal precautions to reduce avalanche hazard in the area before opening it to the public. Such patrols normally involve the use of explosives to trigger avalanches when slopes are empty of skiers.

“There isn’t an answer as to why that happened there at that time,” she said of the fatality Saturday. “The snowpack appears to be doing this in pockets. Patrol will continue to take precautions.”

Ski patrollers discovered the location of the victim within six minutes by honing in on signals from an avalanche transceiver he wore, Olson wrote in her statement. It is standard procedure to search for victims first by transceiver, she said in an interview.

Nodine’s wife said her husband knew ski patrol searched avalanches first with transceivers, looking for victims wearing the locating devices.

The transceiver allowed patrollers to locate him in about six minutes and uncover him within 10. Resuscitation efforts were unsuccessful.

Christine Nodine called her husband a cautious backcountry skier who wore his transceiver when touring and who knew the slide danger was high.

“I’m sure he thought, ‘If I’m going to wear it in-bounds, today is the day to do it,’” she said in a telephone interview Sunday.

The devices, which broadcast a signal that can be picked up by other transceivers, can cost several hundred dollars and are regarded as optional equipment for in-bounds skiers at developed resorts.

The resort opened the area in question for the first time this season at 9:36 a.m. on Saturday, Olson reported.

“It had been skied quite a bit” before the two skiers ventured onto the slope, she said.

“The two were ... witnessed landing safely below a cliff, but shortly afterwards the slope they were on failed,” her statement read.

One of the pair lost a ski after the jump, Olson said.

The slab avalanche broke a crown 6 to 8 feet deep, Olson said after talking to ski patrollers. She said patrollers uncovered the victim quickly after they pinpointed his burial site and administered cardiopulmonary resuscitation, to no avail.

Medical workers also attempted to revive him using a defibrillation device. He was pronounced dead at a clinic at the resort base.

Witnesses at the scene reported as many as 35 workers probing the avalanche slope following the slide. Olson said searchers were able to determine relatively quickly that nobody else was involved. Two dogs aided in the search.

“As soon as the incident occurred, we shut the upper mountain,” Olson said.

Investigations continued into the afternoon, she said.

At the resort base, about eight ski patrollers arrived together about 4 p.m. carrying shovels and long avalanche probe poles fully assembled. They were bundled against an ongoing snowstorm, their weary eyes the only clue to the grim task they had just performed.

The death is the ninth avalanche fatality of the season in the U.S. and Canada, according to Avalanche.org, a network of forecasting centers. The death brought a statement of condolence from resort President Jerry Blann.

“We are extremely saddened by this accident and send our thoughts and prayers to the victim’s family and friends,” he said. “The Tetons have been experiencing severe mountain weather since December 21st with over 5 feet of snow falling in a very short period of time.”

The avalanche danger Saturday was “considerable,” according to the avalanche center, meaning “dangerous unstable slabs exist on steep terrain on certain aspects.” Forecasters upgraded the danger Sunday to “high” following another 10 inches of snow.

Condolences can be sent to the family at valleymortuaryjackson.com.

A life sketch is scheduled to be published in Wednesday’s Jackson Hole News&Guide. A notice regarding services is expected in a later Jackson Hole Daily.