CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) – The danger of more avalanches in western Wyoming persisted Monday following the deaths of three snowmobilers and the injuring of a skier in two avalanches in the region over the weekend.
Three Afton-area men died in a large avalanche near Cottonwood Lake in Lincoln County on Saturday, County Coroner Michael Richins said.
He identified the victims as: Scott L. Bennett, Alan R. Jensen and Kim Steed.
Citing reports from the search and rescue team, Richins said the men were snowmobiling late Saturday morning or early afternoon in a branch canyon by Cottonwood Lake, which is about eight miles southeast of Afton.
They were buried by a large avalanche, he said. All three were dead by the time search and rescue teams reached them, according to the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office.
The slide was about 700 feet long, 300 feet wide and 50 feet deep that uprooted trees, Richins said.
Bennett, Jensen and Steed wore homing beacons enabling the search and rescue team to find them, but not save them, he said.
“The sheer volume of that slide, it was too much,” Richins said.