Local volunteer dies en route to avalanche training

A 47-year-old Libby man died Saturday morning after crashing his snowmobile in the Keeler Creek area, southwest of Troy while on the way to training exercise.

Cameron Mitchell Goins, 47, died after crashing the snowmobile he was driving into a tree.

“He was wearing a helmet, and there was no head injury,” Lincoln County Sheriff Roby Bowe said Sunday night. “He’s a volunteer. This county depends on volunteers for search and rescue, ambulance, fire protection, so very much. It’s sad.”

Bowe said he has learned the cause of death to be body trauma.

"No, he was not speeding," Bowe said.

Goins, along with a group of other snowmobilers, were headed up the Keeler Creek drainage toward an avalanche training area when the accident occurred. According to officials, it was about an eight-mile ride to the training area. The accident happened about 3½ miles into the journey to the training area.

Members of David Thompson Search & Rescue and CANAM Search and Rescue were to take part in a joint avalanche preparedness training exercise in the Bear Mountain area on Saturday. After the accident, the training was cancelled and a date for the rescheduled exercise has not been set.

The joint training also was to involve members of search and rescue teams from Sanders  and Boundary counties, in addition to personnel from the U.S. Forest Service and other volunteer members of the community.

Troy dispatchers were told of the accident at 9:50 a.m. and were that told medically trained personnel already at the scene of the accident had requested an air ambulance response and began CPR on Goins.

The Alert Helicopter of Kalispell was launched to respond, while the Troy Volunteer Ambulance and Advance Life Support personnel responded to the scene from Troy.

An ALS member was transported up the drainage by snowmobile to meet Goins, but he was declared dead at 10:33 a.m.

Bowe responded to the scene with Sheriff’s Office Detective Nate Scofield. U.S. Forest Service investigators also responded to the scene.

Goins had been a member of David Thompson Search & Rescue for two years, and was an active member of the Snowmobile Unit, ATV Unit, and Mountain Unit.

"Cameron Goins was a dedicated community volunteer and will always be remembered and have a place within David Thompson Search and Rescue, and the Lincoln County Sheriff's Office. Our heartfelt sympathies go out to his family," Bowe said.