Mount Hood Snowboarder Killed While Ice Tunnel Collapses Burying 25-Year-Old To His Death Without Warning His Father Of The Possible Trouble Ahead

Mount Hood Snowboarder killed while a group of friends went into an area that was off limits when the snow collapsed and Collin Backowski was covered by snow and ice and buried to what would become his death.

The 25-year-old snowboarder was five others when an ice tunnel collapsed on Oregon's Mount Hood on Saturday. The others tried to dig him out, but could not break through the ice and snow, according to the Associated Press, thus Backowski was killed.

Officials described the ice as thick as concrete. Rescuers responded and a dozen of them tried to use chain saws and other tools to break through and save the snowboarder's life, but the collapse in Mount Hood killed the young man.

"Every time on the news in the winter, when there was an avalanche, I didn't rest until I got him on the phone,"John Backowski, the father of the deceased snowboarder told the Denver Post. "He would say, 'I'm OK, Dad, it wasn't me.' I think he quit telling me, 'Don't worry about me.' He knew his mother and I were never going to stop worrying."

Though the parents were always worried, their son loved what he was doing and John didn't know where his son was going and his son didn't want to tell him.

"He knew better than to tell me he was going to do something that extreme," John Backowski said. "He was fine. He was enjoying himself. He was loving his summer job out there and looking forward to where it led. The area they were going into, it's extreme, extreme terrain. There are snow caves, crevasses. This was extreme stuff."

Collin Backowski, who was working this summer as a coach at High Cascade, a youth snowboarding camp on Mount Hood, spoke to his father earlier Saturday. He didn't mention the trek to him.