CASPER, Wyo. — The Carbon County Sheriff’s Office (CCSO) has identified the person who died in an avalanche while snowmobiling in the Sierra Madre mountains on Saturday as Jon P. LaFramboise, 58, of Rapid City, South Dakota.
LaFramboise and another person had been snowmobiling near Hog Park when the avalanche occurred on Saturday. CCSO says it was notified by the other snowmobiler at around 1 p.m. Saturday with the person reporting they had attempted CPR on LaFramboise but had been unable to detect a pulse and noticed he wasn’t breathing.
CCSO Deputy Patrick Patterson responded to the call and activated search and rescue units out of Saratoga, Ryan Park and Encampment. The Saratoga team was asked to bring a snowcat.
Four members of the search and rescue party traveled on snowmobile, while three rode the snowcat. The team was initially unable to exactly locate the missing party and the snowmobile riders probed the area to try and locate the two people while the snowcat staged at a central location.
Patterson requested assistance from Classic Air to fly over the area and assess how the search and rescue team could reach the missing party.
The Classic Air crew launched out of Rawlins at around 4:30 p.m. and arrived at the scene around 5 p.m. and were then able to spot the missing snowmobilers and guided two from the search and rescue party to the location.
The two search and rescue members on snowmobile were able to locate the missing party by around 5:30 p.m.
“Due to the weather and nightfall, the decision was made to bring the survivor, Rory Simonson out and they would go back the following day to retrieve Mr. LaFramboise,” CCSO said.
The search team returned to a parking lot safely and a plan was made to meet at 8 a.m. Sunday to attempt to recover LaFramboise and his equipment, according to CCSO. A 13-member search team met at 8 a.m. Sunday and set out to conduct the recovery, with the team arriving at the avalanche site at around 9:38 a.m.
The recovery team returned to the parking lot by 11:13 a.m. Sunday. LaFramboise’s remains were turned over to the coroner. The team had also retrieved the snowmobile and equipment of the other rider and returned it to that person.
“We would like to express our sincerest condolences to the family and friends of Mr. LaFramboise,” CCSO said.
CCSO also thanked the following people who helped with the search and rescue efforts:
- Lester Thompson
- Cory Nuhn
- Charles McVey
- Levi Wolfe
- Randy Sykes
- Bruce Romios
- Andrew Myers
- Homer Beach
- Sam Sikes
- Bub Barkhurst
- Brody Barkhurst
- Dan Barkhurst
- Kevin Shue
- Trevor Vorn
- Jack Leiseth
- Paul Young
- Colten Miller
- Jason Burke
- Anthony Rakness
- James Willis
“Our thanks also go out to the Classic Air Medical crew that responded,” CCSO said.
