• Child snowmobiler presumed dead after fall into glacial crevasse

    By Yereth Rosen, Reuters

    ANCHORAGE, Alaska - A 9-year-old boy who fell into a glacial crevasse in Alaska while riding a snowmobile is presumed dead and experts are working to recover his body, the Alaska State Troopers said on Sunday.


    Sjohn Brown of Fairbanks, Alaska, fell into a 150-foot-deep (46-metre-deep) glacial hole on Saturday while he and family members were attending an annual snowmobile-racing event, the troopers said.

    Rescue climbers descended to the bottom of the crevasse and found the snowmobile buried in the snow, as well as the boy's helmet and goggles, but not the child, the troopers said.

    The boy is believed to be beneath the snowmobile and the snow, but a climber who reached the area was not able to locate a body using a probe, troopers spokeswoman Megan Peters said.

    "The deep hole requires skilled climbers. We made an attempt but the hole has filled with a significant amount of snow," Peters said in an email.

    Sjohn was with his father, who watched his son ride around a small mound and fail to reappear, Peters said. "The father rode to the location and found he had fallen through this hole," she said.

    It is believed the boy fell into a glacial moulin, a circular shaft created by spring water flowing onto the glacial ice, Peters said.

    The troopers were waiting on Sunday for approval for U.S. Army experts to attempt to extract the boy's body, she said.

    "The skill needed to rappel down the hole is significant. We must have trained personnel to attempt a recovery," Peters said.

    Sjohn and his family were attending the Arctic Man Classic, an event in which snowmobile-skier teams race each other in the mountains near Paxson, a community about 140 miles southeast of Fairbanks. The spring event usually attracts thousands of camping spectators.

    Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

  • Caught on camera: Rescue of buried snowmobiler

    Helmet-cam video shows a snowmobiler caught in an avalanche in Washington State and his friends quickly rushing to his rescue. KING-TV's Jim Forman reports.

    By KING5.com

    WASHINGTON -- A snowmobiler caught in an avalanche on Stampede Pass, Washington, on Sunday was quickly rescued by friends who watched it happen.

    The entire incident was recorded by a helmet cam, attached to the helmet of the man's friend, Rick Jablinske.

    Jablinske posted the video on YouTube that night.

    Shown in the video, John, the man caught in the avalanche, stops at the bottom of a hill to watch another snomobiler higher up. The snowmobiler makes a few passes, letting loose an avalanche.

    The torrent of snow thunders down the hillside, completely burying John.

    Fellow snowmobilers get to him in seconds and frantically dig him out.

    Breathing and dazed, John was okay and able to go home to recover.

    All the snowmobilers were wearing protective clothing and helmets. 

  • 'Bad year for ice': Two killed as snowmobile plunges into lake

    By msnbc.com staff and news services

    HANOVER, Minn. -- Divers recovered the bodies of two men Sunday whose snowmobile sank after hitting open water on a lake near the Twin Cities, the first thin-ice related deaths reported in Minnesota in a mild winter that has left ice unreliable across the state.

    Dozens of people have fallen into frigid waters around Minnesota this winter as unseasonably warm temperatures have weakened ice and in some cases left patches of open water such as those on Lake Charlotte northwest of Minneapolis.

    "It was a single snowmobile and it appears to have just run right into open water," said Captain Greg Howell of the Wright County Sheriff's Office. "It's been a bad year for ice."

    Local NBC station KARE 11 reported that the two young men were graduates of the Rockford High School, according to its principal, Ryan Jensen.

    Jensen named the victims as 2009 graduate Brad Skafte, 20, and 2010 graduate Adam Patnode, 19, KARE 11 said.

    The station reported that divers found their bodies around 8 a.m. (9 a.m. ET) Sunday using sonar equipment.

    "It's hard to take in," said Nathan Bigley, a friend of the two young men, according to KARE 11. "It still really hasn't hit me hard. But they were both really good guys. Everyone loved them in the community."

    Dan Harberts, whose son was also good friends with the two victims, told the station that "they always seemed to be bored."

    "Sitting around was never good enough for them," Harberts said. "They're way too young for something like this to happen."

    Tail lights vanished
    A 66-year-old man from Buffalo, Minnesota, riding an all-terrain vehicle, had reported seeing a snowmobile drop into the lake on Saturday night. He went to investigate and was rescued by a neighbor when his ATV also sank into the water, Howell said.

    "It's fortunate we weren't looking for three instead of two," Howell said.

    The man, Gail King, told the Star Tribune that he had heard a cracking noise and then the tail lights of the snowmobile vanish into the water.

    He did not hear any shouts for help, the Tribune reported.

    Searchers found snowmobile tracks leading straight to an area of open water on the lake and family members reported two men missing who were thought to have been snowmobiling on the lake Saturday night, Howell said.

    Divers located the snowmobile but have not yet pulled it from the lake, Howell said.

    The ice depth ranges from an inch to 12 inches on lakes in the county with open water in some spots, Howell said.

    Across Minnesota people have reported falling through the ice this winter on-foot, in cars, riding ATVs and snowmobiles, and even in an ice boat, which has steel runners and a sail, officials have said.

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    Reuters contributed to this report.