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An avalanche in the Uinta Mountains killed a 54-year-old snowmobiler near the Utah-Wyoming border Friday afternoon, the Summit County Sheriff's Office reported.
He was identified as Dennis Barnes of Evanston, Wyo.
Barnes was riding with a friend in the Moffit Basin area when a 200- to 250-yard avalanche swept him away, said sheriff's Detective Ronald Bridge. Barnes was within 10 feet of his snowmobile buried under a foot of snow for about a hour and 35 minutes, Bridge said. No one else was hurt in the slide.
Search and rescue crews and two helicopters searched for Barnes in the area near the Utah-Wyoming border. His body was found just before 4 p.m. He was described as an experienced snowmobiler. Barnes was not wearing a location beacon at the time of the avalanche, according to a Summit County sheriff's press release.
Barnes and his companion were riding in an area called the Super Bowl, near Moffit Peak, a site popular with snowmobilers, when the avalanche struck, the press release states.
The Utah Avalanche Center rated avalanche danger as "considerable" in the Moffit Basin on Friday.
"People need to have a lot of knowledge and experience before going out in those kinds of conditions," said Bruce Tremper, director of the Utah Avalanche Center. "Uinta Mountains are dangerous right now because they have a completely different kind of snow pack."
Conditions in the Uintas are expected to be almost identical for the weekend, Tremper added. A forecaster from the Avalanche Center will be heading to the site to do an investigation.
"It's just a real tragic accident," Tremper said, adding that he was told the snowmobilers left their rescue gear in their car because they had no plans to ride on any steep hills.
A 2007 avalanche in the Moffit Basin area took the life of a Summit County man on Christmas Day, Bridge said. The following year, a 15-year-old Evanston boy was killed in a Dec. 29 slide.