A California man who had been missing for days was found dead Monday at Mt. Hood Meadows ski resort, officials said.

The man, identified as 47-year-old Tim Bauters of Sunnyvale, was the second person to die in the resort’s Heather Canyon area over the weekend.

The Hood River County Sheriff’s Office received a call from Bauters’ family Monday afternoon saying he had been expected to return home but never showed up. Bauters had been in Oregon on a work trip, and the last known communication he had with family was Friday, officials said, when he said he was at the resort.

Bauters was believed to be snowboarding alone, but he was in good shape and had been to Mt. Hood Meadows multiple times, officials said.

Security at the resort confirmed his rental car was still in the parking lot, and the sheriff’s office initiated a search from the air while ski patrollers narrowed the search area based on the last lift he rode.

About 6:15 p.m. Monday, staff at the resort reported they had found his body in the Heather Canyon area.

“He was an avid outdoorsman,” said Bauters’ colleague, Christopher Packal. He said Bauters, a physical engineer with Slurry Waste Solutions, had been at the company’s Hillsboro facility, and because of the long weekend, decided to take Friday off to do some snowboarding.

“He traveled a lot and always tried to work in something outdoors,” Packal said.

Packal said Bauters was supposed to work on Saturday, but when the usually communicative man didn’t show up or call, friends and family knew something was amiss.

Bauters was a Belgium native, Packal said, who did his Ph.D. at Cornell and then moved to the west coast a few years ago. He had a wife and two young kids.

“It’s very shocking,” Packal said. “You can’t be around Tim without knowing Tim. He was loud, lots of laughter — he’s irreplaceable.”

On Sunday, Ryan Zeitner, a 45-year-old man from Portland, suffered fatal injuries after he fell while snowboarding on the same part of the mountain.

Heather Canyon, located on the east side of the resort, is home to some of Meadows’ most rugged terrain, which is sought after by advanced skiers and snowboarders.

It’s home to steep slopes, wide-open bowls and tight trees and gullies that can be accessed through gates that are open or closed, depending on daily conditions. All areas of Heather, as the canyon is known, are considered “extremely difficult” double black diamond terrain.

Meadows’ trail map warns that Heather and two other areas of the resort — Clark Canyon and Private Reserve — aren’t patrolled on a regular basis and have avalanche danger at all times. Skiers in in those areas should also be aware of waterfalls, creek holes and unmarked obstacles in those areas, the map warns.

It’s unclear exactly where in the canyon the snowboarders died, and officials from the resort did not immediately respond to questions about conditions in the area before Bauters went missing or when Zeitner suffered his fatal injuries. Sean Weagle, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, said conditions were relatively benign, at least by mountain standards, on both days. A couple of inches of snow fell on both Friday and Sunday mornings, and temperatures were in the 20s with winds around 20 mph. There was some cloud cover on both Friday and Sunday, Weagle said, which could have affected visibility.

Bob Scott, Zeitner’s uncle, told The Oregonian/OregonLive that the two had been to the mountains together many times and that Zeitner was an “excellent snowboarder.”

Scott, who lives in Bend, said the two men had grown close after Zeitner’s father died suddenly of a heart attack a few years ago.

“He was like a son to me," Scott said.

Zeitner grew up in Eugene but moved to Portland and worked for Comcast, Scott said. Well-liked with a large circle of friends, Zeitner brought his happy-go-lucky attitude to everything he did, Scott said. He got married a few years ago and was raising his 2-year-old son with his wife, Amanda.

Scott had last seen Zeitner around Christmas, when they talked about, among other things, the challenges of fatherhood.

“He was looking forward to teaching (his son) how to do everything,” Scott said.

-- Kale Williams

kwilliams@oregonian.com

503-294-4048

@sfkale

Jayati Ramakrishnan contributed to this story.

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