No Charges For Snowmobilers’ ‘Dumb’ Acts

A snowmobile driver who barely escaped an avalanche and a friend who sold video footage of the incident to news programs likely did not stage it, the U.S. Forest Service said Tuesday.

Dave Wright, supervisor of the Panhandle National Forests, said agency officials who began investigating the case earlier this month found no basis to file charges against the men.

The probe focused on whether the avalanche was intentionally caused, and whether the snowmobilers acted recklessly.

“The findings conclude that the video was likely not staged and (was) more a case of uninformed users ‘doing a dumb thing,’ as the snowmobilers themselves stated it,” the Forest Service said in a prepared statement.

The snowmobilers will receive a letter of warning, and copies will be sent to area snowmobile clubs to promote safe snowmobiling practices, the statement said.

On Feb. 22, Greg Linja was videotaped by a friend, Bob Sharp, as he gunned his snowmobile on Cemetery Ridge to escape an avalanche that nearly left him buried by snow.

Sharp had been filming Linja and two other snowmobilers who were driving on Forest Service land outside Wallace. The other snowmobilers managed to avoid the main part of the avalanche.

Videotape of Linja’s escape was aired on several local and national television news programs. Sharp has acknowledged he sold the tape to broadcasters, but he has refused to disclose the price.

Linja has said Sharp did not offer him any profits from sale of the tape. Linja has acknowledged he made a few hundred dollars for an interview with the program “Inside Edition.”

Forest Service officials say Linja and his snowmobile companions had been “high-marking” - driving as far as possible uphill until the vehicles stall from the steep grade.

The practice can trigger avalanches, particularly when snowpacks are deep and unstable as they have been recently, officials say.

Linja, of Kellogg, and Sharp, of Pinehurst, have both denied suggestions that the avalanche may have been staged so the tape could be produced and sold.

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