Two men from the Roaring Fork Valley died Saturday in a backcountry avalanche near Crested Butte, the Mount Crested Butte Police Department said Sunday.
Michael Goerne, 37, who was a lacrosse coach at Aspen High School, and Owen Green, 27, who was with the Snowmass Tourism Department, died Saturday in the East Brush Creek area in a section known as Death Pass. Goerne lived in Carbondale and Green lived in Aspen, according to their social media profiles.
They were reported missing at 8 p.m. Saturday when they did not return. A team from the Crested Butte Search and Rescue went into the field.
“At approximately 10 p.m. tracks were discovered leading into a fresh avalanche field near the area known as Death Pass. No tracks exiting the slide were found and faint beacon signals were located in the slide area,” according to a news release. “Shortly after midnight, it was determined conditions were too adverse to conduct a recovery operation.”
A team went back out Sunday morning and some were airlifted to the scene.
“The air transport team quickly located the bodies of the two men as beacon signals were transmitting. At approximately 3 p.m. the bodies had been transported by the team to the helicopter landing zone at Brush
Creek,” the new release said.
Families of the men have been notified.
This is a developing story that will be updated.