Avalanche near Commissary Ridge claims life of Springville, Utah man
By Duke Dance
January 12, 2026
The red dot indicates the location of the avalanche that occurred Sunday afternoon above LaBarge Creek, claiming the life of one snowmobiler.
An avalanche that occurred Sunday afternoon, January 11 near Commissary Ridge has claimed the life of a Utah man.
Lincoln County Sheriff Shane Johnson said the department received a Garmin InReach notification of an injured snowmobiler in the LaBarge Creek area. Air Idaho had also been contacted and responded to the scene.
“Star Valley Search and Rescue was activated and responded,” stated Sheriff Johnson. “They found that Nicholas Bringhurst, age 31, of Springville, Utah had been caught in an avalanche. Bringhurst’s friend had located an unburied Bringhurst and initiated CPR. However, Bringhurst died as a result of being caught in the avalanche”
Nicholas Bringhurst – Courtesy photo from Facebook
“The Sheriff’s Office expresses our deepest sympathies to the Bringhurst family,” Johnson concluded.
“After interviewing witnesses and observing scene photos, the official cause of death is by asphyxia caused by an avalanche,” Lincoln County Coroner Dain Schwab confirmed to SVI Media.
According to the Bridger-Teton Avalanche Center, the snow “appears to have failed on the rain crust that formed around the Christmas holiday.” The avalanche center reports that the avalanche was snowmobile triggered on a small but steep slope above LaBarge Creek, and that the rider was “buried approximately two feet deep.”
Current avalanche conditions can be found at BridgerTetonAvalancheCenter.org.
Images courtesy the Bridger Teton Avalanche Center.
This avalanche seems likely to have failed at or just above the crust formed on Christmas.
