Avalanche Kills Snowmobiler In Sheep Creek In The Snake River Range In Idaho

February 21, 2018

Sheep Creek, Idaho – On Tuesday, February 20, 2018 a 47-year-old snowmobiler from Idaho Falls was caught, buried, and killed in an avalanche in an upper bowl of the Sheep Creek area in the Snake River Range east of Palisades Reservoir in the Swan Valley in Bonneville County, Idaho.

The accident occurred about six miles from the trailhead at roughly 16:00 when the man was riding with a group of friends.. The victim’s friends were able to locate and recover the snowmobiler, but the man was unresponsive. Rescuers responded to the scene and were able to bring the victim out of the mountain environment.

JHNewsAndGuide.com, writes “According to reports, Leishman was buried upside-down, and his feet were under at least two feet of snow. He was wearing a transceiver, but it wasn’t putting out a signal, witnesses told officials. They used probes to locate him about 150 yards from his snow machine.”

JHAvalanche.org reports that this avalanche occurred at 16:06 on 02/20/2018. The slide location was 9474′ on a north aspect on a 41-45 degree slope in an upper bowl in Sheep Creek at a lat/long of 43.370228, -111.134377. The soft slab avalanche was recorded as a R3, D3. They identified the victim as Troy Leishman, 47.

We will try to update this post when more information is available.

Read more about the avalanche in Sheep Creek in Idaho from the following sources: