Two men from the Roaring Fork Valley died Saturday in a backcountry avalanche near Crested Butte, the Mount Crested Butte Police Department said Sunday.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
“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.”<\/p>\n
A team went back out Sunday morning and some were airlifted to the scene.<\/p>\n
“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<\/p>\n