Engineer found dead on Oregon’s Mt. Hood

A Sunnyvale engineer and father was found dead on Oregon’s Mount Hood after he disappeared snowboarding during the Presidents Day Holiday weekend.

Tim Bauters, 47, was reported missing by family members Monday afternoon after he failed to come home on time from an extended work trip, according to the Hood River County Sheriff’s Office.

When he last spoke with family members Feb. 14, Bauters said he was snowboarding by himself at Mount Hood Meadows, the Sheriff’s Office said. He was in good shape and had snowboarded at the same ski area several times during the same trip.

Ski patrol members verified that his vehicle was still on-site and used Bauters’ lift records to narrow down search locations. Around 6:15 p.m. the evening of Feb. 17, they located his body.

Bauters grew up in Belgium and moved to the U.S. in 1995 to earn a doctorate in soil and water engineering at Cornell University, according to his Linkedin and an obituary posted to the website Geosynthetica.

Since 2017, he had served as director of engineering for Bay

Area-based Slurry Waste Solutions, a job that came after years in the hazardous waste and environmental engineering field.

“In the professional sphere, he was energetic and humored. He delivered difficult engineering points … in a manner that encouraged collegial discussion and tamped down competitive fires,” read the Geosynthetica obituary. “His demeanor made him a natural moderator.”

Bauters was the second snowboarder to die on Mount Hood over the weekend. The previous day, Portland, Oregon, resident Ryan Zeitner, 45, sustained fatal injuries in a fall.

Both men had been boarding in the Heather Canyon area, known as the most difficult terrain on the mountain, according to CNN.

Bauters was married and had two young children.