ISLAND PARK — Since the beginning of the year, there have been multiple snowmobile fatalities in Fremont County, and officials are stressing safety measures for anybody traveling into the backcountry.
These fatalities include Idaho Falls resident Adam Wayne Andersen on Jan. 10, Raymond John Moe of Missoula, Montana, on Jan. 20, and Wayne R. Halverson, a Wishek, North Dakota, resident who died on Saturday.
There's also been a fourth fatality in East Idaho, Troy Leishman of Idaho Falls, which occurred in eastern Bonneville County near the Palisades Reservoir last week.
Anderson, Moe, and Leishman's cause of death were all avalanches, while Halverson died of his injuries after crashing into a tree on his way from Last Chance to Ponds Lodge in Island Park.
Members of Halverson's party performed CPR until Fremont County's EMT arrived, but efforts to revive him failed. He was pronounced dead at 8:27 p.m. Saturday.
"Some years we don't have any (fatalities)," Fremont County Sheriff Len Humphries said. "This year with three is a high. I don't think we've ever had that many before."
Justin Liebert, head of Fremont County Search and Rescue, said that this year has been the worst that he's seen in seven years in terms of snow conditions, and it's been one of the worst in his career for fatalities.
When questioned about what's caused so many fatalities this year, Liebert said that early on in the winter season, snowmobilers had safe snow. But rain and hail have created different layers in the snow, making it more unstable.
"As the snowflakes fall on top of each other, they're like puzzle pieces where they lock into each other, and they settle on top of each other," Liebert said. "That's what makes its strength, but when you've got a snowflake that's a round ball, like a BB, there's no way of locking that in."
Unfortunately, the conditions haven't been improving.
"And then when you get a ton of snow on top of that already unstable snow, they just don't sew themselves together," Liebert said.
Liebert said that backcountry travelers are always at risk of triggering an avalanche and that the best way to avoid it is to stay on the trails.
"Know the country you're going into," he said. "There's a lot of trails up in Fremont County. I know that's not what they want, but when conditions are bad, stick to the trails. Ride the flat country. Ride the meadows. Stay off the hillside."
There will likely be far fewer obstacles on the trails as well, making it much safer than the backcountry.
Another possible cause of the rise in fatalities that Humphries mentioned was that more people are riding in the area due to a lack of snowfall in other states and other counties in Idaho.
"I would say that a lot of areas did not have much snow this year for snowmobile riding and so we've seen an influx of people coming to ride here that normally wouldn't," Humphries said.
