MILLCREEK, Utah (KSTU)— Travis Haussener is thankful to be alive.

Last week, he was backcountry skiing in Utah on what he thought was stable snow when he suddenly realized he was in danger.

“I heard the big 'wumpf,' felt like the ground shake, and then all of a sudden there's this wall of snow coming down on me that envelops me," said Haussener. "And then I thought, that was it. I thought, you know, my life was over.”

Using his one free arm, Haussener desperately tried digging himself out.

“In between digs, I started yelling for help," he said. "In, you know, the hopes of some miracle.”

Miraculously, an off-duty Unified Fire EMT heard his cries and called in search and rescue teams.

“I was [like], you know, 'Guys, you gotta get me down or I'm gonna die up here,'" said Haussener.

It took eight hours to get Haussener off the mountain.

Nursing a hole in his lung, broken ribs and a dislocated shoulder, Haussener wishes he had paid more attention to the snow.

“I want to keep being in the mountains, keep doing what I love," he said. "I'll be maybe a little bit more careful next time."

This story was originally reported by Jenna Bree on fox13now.com.

ALTA, Utah — When an avalanche happens, one invaluable tool is avalanche dogs.

Many teams from around the West coast bring their dogs to Utah to get trained at Wasatch Backcountry Rescue’s Avalanche Dog Training school.

“These dogs are a great tool for us,” Andy Van Houten, President of the Wasatch Backcountry Rescue said.

“They've proven themselves valuable over the last several years as we've seen an increase in backcountry users.”

The school brings in students from all over the west coast including teams from Colorado, Idaho and California.

One of the 16 teams are Maia and Zak from Keystone ski resort in Colorado.

“Maia's a year and a half old she's a golden retriever,” Zak bloom, Maia’s dog handler said.

“She's done very well this week.”

The one-year-old is a friendly camera-loving star in the school but while it's fun in the snow for her, saving lives is no laughing matter.

“We've spent all week burying each other in the snow and letting these dogs find us,” Brown said.

“Just hoping everybody progresses with the idea that we can hopefully save somebody.”

Golden retrievers like Maia are among a variety of dog breeds building their resumes.

“What we generally look for is kind of the hunting breed,” Van Houten said.

“We want a dog that's pretty resilient out in the harsh weather and then we also want a dog that's gonna work hard that's trainable.”

Being friendly is also a part of the mission.

“We do a lot of interactions around the guests here at the resort and we do a lot of outreach education so we want dogs that are friendly” Van Houten explained.

“If you're at the resorts come up to say hi talk to the handlers we're happy to explain what we do how it.”

While training on the ground is one thing, training in the air is the mission of the final day of training.

“What we do is we hot load teams down here in the lower mountain,” Van Houten said.

“We fly them up to a site on the hill to simulate getting flown into a live rescue.”

As the week of training comes to a close and the dogs are mastering their air rescue skills, dogs like these will be ready to save lives in an emergency.

Spencer Joseph at KSTU in Salt Lake City, Utah first reported this story.

The National Hockey League (NHL) will not resume its season on Dec. 27 as previously announced.

The league paused its season on Wednesday after numerous teams reported COVID-19 outbreaks.

In a statement Friday, the league said no games will take place prior to Dec. 28.

"Teams will return to practice on Dec. 26 and it is expected that the League will provide an update on its return to play plans by the end of day on Sunday," the NHL said.

ESPN reports that the league is implementing stricter protocols in an effort to limit future outbreaks.

The protocols include daily testing and restrictions on where players can go when they are not with the team.

Four skiers were killed and four others rescued after an avalanche Saturday in a backcountry ski area near Salt Lake City, police said.

The Unified Police Department of Salt Lake City received a hang-up call around 11:40 a.m. Saturday, and then received a report that there had been an avalanche in the Wilson Basin area with five people trapped, according to Sgt. Melody Cutler, a public information officer with the police department.

Two groups of skiers, one group of three and another of five, began skiing on the mountain at the same time and authorities think the avalanche was caused by the group skiing, Cutler said.

"Four of those skiers were able to dig their way out," Cutler said. "All four of the remaining are deceased."

The skiers range in age from early 20s to late 30s, according to Cutler. A Life Flight rescue service was called to transport the survivors out of the area, and a flyover was being conducted to determine whether it is safe for rescuers to remove the deceased tonight, Cutler said.

The location where the avalanche occurred is a "very popular backcountry ski area," Cutler told CNN, adding that it has "been under very high-risk avalanche conditions recently."

Wilson Basin is by Mill Creek Canyon, about 20 miles southwest of Salt Lake City.

The Utah Avalanche Center said in a tweet Saturday morning that there were "dangerous avalanche conditions."

Utah Gov. Spencer Cox responded to Saturday's deaths on Twitter, calling it a "terrible tragedy."

"We are grateful to the first responders and others who engaged in this rescue and recovery effort," Cox said. "With avalanche danger high right now, please exercise extreme caution."

Salt Lake City Mayor Jenny Wilson tweeted that she was "heartbroken."

"We deeply mourn the loss of life due to this devastating incident," Wilson said.

The four are the most recent in a string of deaths caused by avalanches in three states, bringing the number of fatalities to nine.

A Utah man was killed when he was caught in an avalanche near Park City Mountains Canyons Village resort a week ago, just a few miles from the site of Saturday's avalanche. The Utah Avalanche Center has already published a report analyzing the avalanche.

Three more skiers, who were all local officials, were killed in an avalanche in Colorado Monday. Their bodies were recovered Wednesday.

In New Hampshire, the body of a skier was recovered Wednesday after an avalanche in the White Mountain National Forest.

MILLCREEK, Utah — Four skiers are dead after an avalanche in Millcreek Canyon, which is in the Salt Lake City area.

The Unified Police Department of Greater Salt Lake said it received a "faint" distress call around 11:40 a.m. Saturday. Despite poor cell phone reception in the area, officers were able to determine that the slide happened in the Wilson Glade area of Wilson Fork. It is also near Alexander Basin and Gobblers Knob.

UPD later confirmed that four of the skiers were dead and four others were alive. All eight had avalanche beacons.

The medical status of the survivors was not immediately available, but officials say they were able to dig themselves out. The surviving skiers were also able to locate and dig out the other four, but they had already died.

Search and rescue teams from several agencies are working to recover the bodies in a way that will not further endanger crews from getting caught in another avalanche.

“We are heartbroken over the tragic news of four fatalities as the result of an avalanche in the Millcreek Canyon area this afternoon," Salt Lake County Mayor Jenny Wilson wrote in a statement. "We deeply mourn the loss of life due to this devastating incident.”

The incident is the first deadly avalanche in Salt Lake County this winter season. There were two others last month in the Park City backcountry: a skier in the Square Top area and a snowboarder in Dutch Draw, respectively.

Gov. Spencer Cox also issued a statement, writing on Twitter:

The Utah Avalanche Center reports that an avalanche was remotely triggered in the same general area just one day prior. Nobody was caught in it.

UPD says Millcreek Canyon is closed to recreation at least through Sunday, but restaurants and businesses in the canyon will still be open.

The victims' names have not yet been released, and the survivors' medical status is not known at this time.

This story was originally published by Jonah Napoli, Spencer Burt and Spencer Joseph at KSTU.