UPDATE 2:40 p.m.: This story has been updated to include an identification of the deceased snowmobiler.
A 31-year-old Utah snowmobiler in the Wyoming backcountry died Sunday after he and another rider triggered an avalanche that buried him about 2 feet below the surface and under his snowmobile.
The second rider wasn’t hurt, the Bridger-Teton Avalanche Center says in a Monday incident report.
The avalanche happened on a steep slope above LaBarge Creek in the Wyoming Mountain Range southeast of Afton.
Frank Carus, director of the Bridger-Teton Avalanche Center, told Cowboy State Daily on Monday that he was waiting on the coroner’s report to release the name of the victim.
A team was at the site Monday investigating the avalanche, he said.
Later Monday, the Lincoln County Sheriff's Office reported the deceased snowmobiler as Nicholas Bringquist of Springville, Utah.
Dug Out
The two snowmobilers were on a steep, ungroomed slope when the avalanche was triggered at about 8,800 feet of elevation, Carus said, adding the area is avalanche-prone.
An airbag the rider was wearing deployed, but “it didn’t help,” Carus said.
While snowmobiles don’t have built-in airbags, many backcountry riders carry avalanche airbag backpacks that deploy during an avalanche.
The airbag theoretically helps keep the rider on the surface of a moving avalanche.
The riding partner dug the buried rider out and performed CPR, according to reports to the avalanche center.
Carus said local dispatch received a satellite message from a portable satellite communicator.
A helicopter was dispatched to the site, he said, but could not reach the victim in time.
“This area is particularly nasty, with steep slopes leading into a stream drainage,” Carus told Cowboy State Daily. “The groomed trail specifically didn’t go down there.
“The groomer leaves the road at that turn and heads up on the ridge because it’s very steep, avalanche-prone terrain.”
‘Christmas Crust’
The avalanche is listed as a D2 on the Bridger Teton Avalanche Center’s website. The D scale measures an avalanche’s destructive force.
D2 is large enough to bury, injure or kill a person, but not generally big enough to destroy a building.
According to the Bridger Teton Avalanche Center report, this avalanche was likely triggered on what experts are calling the “Christmas crust” — a layer of snow that had hardened over another layer that had melted and frozen again during an unseasonably warm and rainy Christmas in the region.
“We have a team down there to do a crown profile to determine in more detail how the avalanche was triggered,” Carus said.
A second avalanche nearby was observed Saturday and reported late Sunday by another snowmobiler, Carus said.
“They seemed to think they triggered it from a ridge,” he said.
That report, which was filed online, reads, “We came in above and as soon as we hit the ridge a slab about 200 feet wide [and] two feet deep [slid] approximately 100 feet to a bench below.”
The report “proves the point that this is an avalanche-prone area,” Carus said.
‘Human-Triggered Problem’
Carus said he was returning home from teaching an avalanche course in Cody when he received the report about the fatality, between 4 and 5 p.m. Sunday.
“The interesting thing, too, is that the danger rating is moderate, and we haven’t seen a whole lot of activity on this layer,” Carus said. “But [activity] is still happening, and it’s a human-triggered problem.”
Carus cautioned outdoor enthusiasts to avoid terrain traps — places that raise the consequence of an avalanche — and never go out alone.
“People really need to keep eyes on each other,” he said.
Sunday’s is the second avalanche-related fatality in Wyoming so far this season.
A 31-year-old skier from Jackson caught in an avalanche in The Claw, an area on the south side of Teton Pass, died on Dec. 26, six days after the accident.
Wyoming sees 1.8 avalanche-related deaths per year on average, and Carus said only one has been reported each year for the last few years.
Kate Meadows can be reached at kate@cowboystatedaily.com.
