ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Rain, low clouds and predicted high winds Sunday grounded searchers seeking the body of a ConocoPhillips Alaska employee missing and presumed dead in an avalanche that killed the head of the company.
The avalanche at around noon Saturday on the Kenai Peninsula buried Jim Bowles, 57, head of ConocoPhillips Alaska, and Alan Gage, 39, part of the company’s capital- projects team in Anchorage.
Gage remains missing.
The men were in a party of 12 snowmobilers in the Grandview wilderness area, part of the Chugach National Forest, between Moose Pass and Portage.
Bowles was buried for about 45 minutes before companions using avalanche beacons dug him out. He was pronounced dead at the scene. Gage apparently was not wearing a beacon, state troopers said.
