A 31-year-old outdoors enthusiast and Fort Collins landscape architect, who was caught in an avalanche Dec. 2 near Cameron Pass, has died, authorities said Tuesday.
Lukas “Luke” Ray Oldenburg, 31, died Monday from injuries sustained in the slide, the funeral home handling his services reported.
A native of Rochester, Minn., and graduate of North Dakota State University in Fargo, N.D., Oldenburg was employed at BHA Design Incorporated in Fort Collins for eight years. His designs are spread throughout the city, according to his obituary.
He enjoyed hunting, snowboarding, mountain climbing, rock climbing, motorcycle riding, golf and playing guitar – his end-goal was to live life to the fullest, according to the Fort Collins Coloradoan, which interviewed him in 2002.
Oldenburg had survived two prior encounters with avalanches, the Coloradoan reported.
“There was a quote I read on a bathroom wall that I try to live by. It read: ‘Everybody dies, but not everybody really lives.’ I think that applies to me,” Oldenburg said in the 2002 interview. “I’ll do a lot of crazy stuff even though there are large risks involved just to get more out of life.”
He was snowboarding with two friends near Cameron Pass when he was buried beneath 6 feet of snow, authorities said. His friends were not caught by the avalanche. they located him with help of a beacon he carried and dug him out of the snow.
He had stopped breathing and his heart had stopped, but his friends revived him using CPR, authorities said.
They wrapped Oldenburg in a sleeping bag, and one of his friends left for help while the other began sliding him down the mountain, with help from others in the area. Oldenburg was airlifted to a hospital about three hours after the avalanche.
A visitation will be held Thursday at Allnutt Funeral Services Drake Chapel, 650 W. Drake Rd., in Fort Collins. Other services will be held in Rochester.
Memorial contributions may be made to Larimer Search and Rescue or to the Luke Oldenburg Support Fund at First Bank.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
