LIVINGSTON — Officials in Park County have released the name of a North Dakota man who died in an avalanche just north of Yellowstone National Park last week.
Coroner Al Jenkins says the victim was 31-year-old Donnie Duane McKay of Tioga, North Dakota.
McKay died on Nov. 26 in a snow slide near Cooke City.
Officials with the Gallatin National Forest Avalanche Center said McKay, who was an experienced snowmobiler, rode through a gap in the trees and remotely triggered the slide that buried him under 5 feet of snow. His partner used an avalanche transceiver and probe to locate McKay and had his face uncovered within an estimated 20 minutes.
Efforts to resuscitate McKay were unsuccessful.
The avalanche danger was rated high that day.