24-year-old Milwaukee man dies in an avalanche while on vacation in Wyoming
A 24-year-old Milwaukee man died in an avalanche just southeast of Smoot, Wyoming, on Thursday. The man, who was riding a snowmobile, was killed after an avalanche broke loose above him and carried him into a creek below.
The man has been identified as Alex Balestrieri, a third-generation employee of the Balestrieri Group, serving as the construction company's project manager and estimator.
“His sled landed on top of him, 6 to 7 feet of debris piled in and he was facedown in the water,” said Frank Carus, director of the Bridger-Teton Avalanche Center, who investigated the fatality.
Carus said Balestrieri left with a group Thursday morning and rode 10 to 12 miles into an area called The Terraces. Once there, the group dropped down into the Poker Creek drainage where the incident took place.
As the group was trying to leave the area Balestrieri crossed a roughly 100-foot slope and while doing so the snow pulled out beneath him.
After the incident, the Bridger-Teton Avalanche Center conducted a beacon search and found Balestrieri with avalanche probes. According to the Sheriff’s Office, it took about an hour and a half to dig the victim out.
Balestrieri was the only person in his party who was caught in the avalanche and this was the first avalanche fatality reported near Jackson Hole this year.
On the week of the incident, a significant storm blew through the Teton area and dropped 20 to 30 inches of snow in the Greys River area where the fatality occurred. The Sheriff’s Office also said that water in the creek may have interacted with the snow to create slush and high-density debris.
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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Milwaukee man dies in an avalanche while on vacation in Wyoming
