Colorado avalanche victims identified

Tue., Feb. 18, 2014

Associated Press

Deadly weekend

KETCHUM, Idaho – An avalanche in central Idaho buried four people, killing an Idaho man whose wife survived being buried under the snow for about 90 minutes, officials in Blaine County said.

The sheriff’s office said the avalanche occurred shortly after 2 p.m. Sunday in the Smiley Creek area about 36 miles north of Ketchum.

Robert Swanton, 65, and Susan Swanton, 56, of Sutherlin, Ore., were able to extricate themselves and began looking for George Martin Jr., 64, of Bellevue, and his wife, Lesley Martin, 70.

The Swantons found Martin after about an hour, but they were unable to revive him. They couldn’t find an avalanche-beacon signal for Lesley Martin, so they rode a snowmobile to the highway for help.

Lesley Martin, who was buried for an estimated 90 minutes, was taken to the hospital for treatment of hypothermia, the sheriff’s office said.

Five people were caught in avalanches over the weekend in Montana. A 35-year-old woman suffered a broken leg Sunday after she was caught in a snow slide while backcountry skiing near Big Sky in southwestern Montana.

On Saturday, a snowmobiler triggered an avalanche near Whitefish Mountain Resort that partially buried four people.

PORTAGE, Wis. – Two skiers killed in a large avalanche in Colorado were good friends from a small town in southern Wisconsin, relatives and colleagues said Monday.

Three other skiers were hospitalized following Saturday’s avalanche near Leadville, Colo. Rescue crews found the two skiers’ bodies Sunday afternoon near Independence Pass, about 80 miles southwest of Denver, the Lake County Sheriff’s Office said.

Robert Lentz said his son, Justin Lentz, of Portage, was one of those killed in the avalanche. The 32-year-old loved to ski and started when he was 5 or 6 years old, his father said. He said his son was “a good kid” who worked as an electrician and was engaged to be married.

Another Portage man, Jarrard Law, 34, was also killed. Law was an information-technology expert at the Necedah Area School District, where Superintendent Larry Gierach remembered him as an “incredible man.”

Lentz and Law were close buddies who frequently went skiing, snowboarding and mountain biking together, said Joey Kindred, 28, who knew them both well.

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Colorado avalanche victims identified

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