Snowmobiler dies in avalanche

One member of a snowmobiling party had just suggested the group get out of the dangerous area when another person in the group triggered an avalanche and was killed north of Yellowstone National Park, officials said in a video posted online Monday.

Jason Wald, 33, of Bismarck, N.D., died Saturday north of Cooke City, Park County Undersheriff Clay Herbst said.

Doug Chabot, director of the Gallatin National Forest Avalanche Center, made the video at the scene explaining what had happened and posted it to YouTube.

He said a 22-year-old snowmobiler was on a Sheep Mountain ridge about 1 p.m. Saturday when his father approached on a second machine and said they should get out of the area.

As the father turned around, his snowmobile got stuck.

While he was trying to dig his sled out of the snow, Wald rode uphill past the father and son, triggering a slide of snow that was about 100 feet wide and 3 to 4 feet deep, Chabot said.

The father was buried up to his chest and managed to dig himself out. His son was fully buried, but his father and other members of the party could see the orange of his air bag just below the snow’s surface and rescued hm.

“He was blue, he was barely conscious,” Chabot said in the video. “They got him out pretty quickly.”

The party used avalanche beacons to search for Wald, who had an air bag but apparently was unable to deploy it, Chabot said.

“They located him, dug him out and unfortunately he didn’t make it,” Chabot said.

Wald’s head was covered by about 6 feet of snow, he said.

“Everyone had rescue gear, beacons, shovels, probes, air bags,” Chabot said. “They knew the danger was high. They felt like they needed to go elsewhere, it just didn’t happen soon enough.”

The danger of an avalanche remained high Monday in the mountains north of Cooke City as well as in the Madison and Gallatin mountain ranges south of Bozeman and the Lionhead Area west of West Yellowstone.