Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
EVANSTON, Wyoming — A family and community are grieving the loss of an Evanston man who died after being trapped under an avalanche. The man's brother says this shows tragedy can happen to anyone.
Trevor Harmon said he and his half brother, Scott Wright practically grew up on snowmobiles. They've had more backcountry time than a lot of people.
Now, many people are devastated that Wright did not make it back from a snowmobiling trip on Monday. He had been snowmobiling with a friend near the Monte Cristo snowmobile area when an avalanche hit.
We all have our passions in life, and for Wright, snowmobiling was a big one.
"He's always been hell-bent on those things," Harmon said, "ever since he was old enough to grab a whole handful of throttle."
Harmon and his brother ran High Uinta Ventures Joatmon together for several years, before recently parting ways.
"He's always an airborne ranger, I guess you'd say," Harmon explained. "He liked to jump really high and climb really steep stuff and jump off it."
Harmon said Wright sometimes took that experience to help rescue people who became stranded about 30 miles south of Evanston.
Search and rescue crews from Rich, Cache, and Weber counties responded Monday. It took nearly four hours after the avalanche to find him.
Some friends who retrieved his snowmobile Tuesday said the snow was several feet deep.
"He's affected a lot of people's lives in positive ways — more than I knew of," Harmon said. "He's just one of those dudes that's cool to be around."
So much so that when Harmon put out the word Monday night, dozens of people showed up for Wright. At least one friend is now planning a fundraiser in his honor. The details are still being worked out.
"My phone started ringing like crazy and it's almost heartwarming to know that there's that many people out there that are here to support him," Harmon said.
While we don't know exactly what went wrong Monday, Harmon is hopeful at the very least that people will be reminded to pay attention, check the conditions and go prepared.
"The avalanches are no joke," Harmon said. "You can hear the horror stories all day long, but until you're directly affected by it, you don't actually want to accept it."
