Alaska avalanche kills Conoco exec, worker missing

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Poor weather kept Alaska state troopers from searching Sunday for a Conoco Phillips Alaska employee missing in the avalanche that killed company president Jim Bowles on Saturday, a spokeswoman for the Alaska State Troopers says.

The avalanche that killed Bowles occurred in the Grandview area wilderness between Girdwood and Seward on the Kenai Peninsula.

Bowles was with a group of about 12 snowmachiners when the avalanche roared down a slope. His body was recovered before nightfall, while the second rider also caught in the slide, Alan Gage, was missing and presumed killed, troopers said.

Bowles has headed Conoco Phillips Alaska since November 2004 and oversaw roughly 900 employees in the state, said spokeswoman Natalie Lowman.

"He was a great leader for our company. ... Our deepest sympathies go out to his family," she said.

Gage also worked for Conoco Phillips as a member of the company's capital projects team in Anchorage, Lowman said.

Bowles was pronounced dead after rescuers tried to revive him with CPR for at least 30 minutes, troopers said.

A trooper spokeswoman had said in an e-mail Saturday that neither man wore an avalanche beacon. But on Sunday, a description of the search posted on the troopers Web site said friends using beacons were able to locate Bowles about 45 minutes after the avalanche.

"Apparently Bowles was found wearing (a beacon), but Gage did not have one on," said Trooper spokeswoman Megan Peters.

Troopers will resume the search for Gage when weather allows, she said. "We're not going to be going out today. The weather is not conducive to searching."

The deadly Kenai avalanche was along the West Ridge of Grandview near Spencer Glacier, roughly a half mile from Mile 43 of the Alaska Railroad tracks between Girdwood and Seward.

The search on the Kenai Peninsula — involving personnel from troopers, the Alaska Railroad, U.S. Forest Service and Girdwood Fire Department — was called off for the night as darkness fell and the threat of severe weather rolling in from Prince William Sound increased, said troopers Sgt. Bryan Barlow, supervisor of the Girdwood post.

"We've got pretty hazardous avalanche conditions out here right now with the new snow," Barlow said. "We're going to have a lot of natural avalanches coming down, and the human-triggered ones are going to be a biggie as well. We've got three people deceased today as a result."

A group of about a dozen snowmachiners were traveling together in the Grandview area when the avalanche struck, troopers spokeswoman Megan Peters said.

Forecaster Carl Skustad with the Chugach National Forest's Avalanche Information Center said the snowmachiners were in moderate terrain, with probably a 35-40 degree slope. But with the weak layer underneath, that can be enough for snow to let loose, he said.

At least one member of the party drove back to the railroad tracks to call in the accident around 12:30 p.m. The response included a troopers helicopter and a Forest Service crew.

By the time the troopers helicopter got to the scene, Bowles' body had already been recovered, Peters said. Searchers were unable to locate the other victim.

The Hiland avalanche was reported by neighbors and by a woman who escaped the snow and made it to the road, said Erich Scheunemann, assistant chief for the Anchorage Fire Department.

"Avalanches are fairly common in the Hiland valley here," he said.

Troopers on Sunday said Schorr was skiing down to meet a friend when the avalanche began.

The pair were in an area known as "three bowls," said Dean Knapp, a volunteer for the Alaska Mountain Rescue Group.

Kip Melling, an instructor for the Alaska Avalanche School in Anchorage, lives about two miles from the avalanche site. The first people on the scene were neighbors who saw the man's hand protruding from the snow, Melling said.

Debris from the avalanche was piled roughly three to four feet high in the area, he said.

Experts warned conditions are ripe for avalanches with a recent snow dump and high winds.

"We're dealing with an instability that's long-lasting. It's been in the snowpack pretty much since the beginning of the year," Melling said.

Firefighters and police lined the roadway Saturday as the sun went down and members of the Alaska Mountain Rescue Group worked to recover the body. Searchers rode Anchorage and Chugiak fire department snowmachines toward the slide, switching to snowshoes to reach the body.

Schorr was pronounced dead at 6:25 p.m. by a member of the rescue group. He wasn't carrying an avalanche beacon or other rescue equipment, Melling said.

The Chugach National Forest's Avalanche Information Center was calling Saturday's avalanche danger moderate with pockets of considerable danger. Forecaster Skustad said in an interview that a layer of surface hoar that formed about two weeks ago is now buried under about three feet of snow, making for potentially big slides.

Recent heavy snows and whipping winds are creating substantial danger that is only expected to get worse in coming days as a new storm moves through, Skustad said. The four feet of new snow was measured in eight days at Center Ridge in the Turnagain Pass area, while winds gusted to 86 mph midweek

"Today was the allure of bluebird weather," Skustad said. "Today was a challenging day because it had good visibility, the snow quality was nice and people were just getting out there. We need to give the mountains a chance to adjust to the new snow loads."