The Pitkin County coroner’s office on Wednesday afternoon identified a man killed in a backcountry avalanche Tuesday as Aspen-area carpenter John Joseph Kelley.
Search teams found the 60-year-old’s body in the White River National Forest about 16 miles south of Aspen on Wednesday morning. The search for him began the evening before. The coroner’s office said he died from suffocation, but he also suffered multiple traumatic injuries in the deep avalanche, which occurred at about 10,500 feet near the Lindley Hut about 4 p.m. Tuesday.
Kelley was in a group of eight backcountry skiers. The other seven escaped without injury.
The group was characterized by Mountain Rescue-Aspen as Kelley’s family and friends and very experienced in backcountry travel. The cause of the avalanche had not been determined as of Wednesday evening. The Denver Post
