news-record.com

GREENSBORO - When Saturday's weather dawned fair after several days of avalanche warnings in Wyoming, David Nodine wasn't about to miss skiing with his friends, but he also wasn't going to take any chances, his mother said Monday.

Wearing a helmet and emergency transponder, Nodine, 31, and a friend set out for a long-awaited day on the slopes, said Cathy Nodine of Oak Ridge. But even those precautions and the dedicated effort of his ski patrol rescuers weren't enough to save her son.

Nodine died after being buried in an avalanche on the Paintbrush trail at the Jackson Hole Mountain Resort, according to the Jackson Hole News & Guide.

Nodine was pronounced dead in a clinic at the bottom of the mountain, according to the Jackson Hole newspaper. He had been suffocated by eight feet of snow that buried him after an avalanche, the News & Guide reported.

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.

Resort officials reported the avalanche occurred about 1:25 p.m. and carried Nodine and a friend about 200 yards. The friend was uninjured, according to the Jackson Hole News & Guide.

Nodine, a 1995 graduate of Northwest Guilford High School, moved to Jackson Hole with his wife in 2005 and started his own company, according to his family.

His parents and brother planned to join him there for a visit next week, Cathy Nodine said.

"It's an accident," Cathy Nodine said. "It could have been a car wreck. We just have to accept it as that."

Cathy and Doug Nodine started taking their sons skiing in North Carolina when the boys were 4 and 6 years old. Later, the family would take ski trips to resorts in the western United States. When David Nodine had a choice about where to live, he picked somewhere he could ski, hike and enjoy the outdoors, Cathy Nodine said.

After graduating from Colgate University in New York, Nodine worked in Boston, then Dallas before moving to Jackson Hole . He and his wife were planning a move to Portland, Ore., as soon as they could sell their house, Cathy Nodine said.

John Alexander, a longtime friend of the Nodine family, said David Nodine was warm, outgoing and caring.

"David was everybody's friend," Nodine's wife, Christine Nodine, 30 , told the Jackson Hole News & Guide. "He was so outgoing and so easy to be with, and his smile and laugh would just light up a room."

Funeral services will be held Saturday in Jackson Hole.

Contributions in lieu of flowers may be made to American Black and Tan Coonhound Rescue, c/o Molly Smith , 130 Spalding Creek Court , Atlanta Ga. 30350 .

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

Contact Sonja Elmquist at 373-7090 or sonja.elmquist@news-record.com