A 44-year-old Richfield man also died Saturday when his attempt to climb the back side of Signal Peak, southeast of Richfield, triggered an avalanche. He was also covered in 8 feet of snow, authorities said. His name was not released Sunday, but the Sevier County Sheriff's Office expected to release his name this morning.

The avalanche center reported several other avalanches in Utah on Saturday, including three in which skiers managed to ride out the slides or narrowly avoid disaster.

One of those near-misses occurred in Big Cottonwood Canyon at an elevation of 10,600 feet when an experienced skier took a 1,000-foot ride on an avalanche and survived unharmed, the center reported. Another skier was briefly carried by a 100-foot-wide avalanche that began at 9,600 feet near the Millcreek Canyon/Cottonwood Canyon divide.

The avalanche center said the Hell's Canyon avalanche was the only one believed to have occurred in the state Sunday.

Also Saturday, two snowmobilers died in an avalanche in Montana's Big Belt Mountains. They were identified as Kris Rains, 26, and Brett Toney, 27, of Townsend, Mont.

Officials said Holmes was wearing a helmet when he was caught in the Wasatch County avalanche about 4:30 p.m. Saturday near Tower Mountain. Cousins and friends who accompanied Holmes on the ride were able to locate him through an avalanche beacon he was wearing.

Wasatch County sheriff's deputy Michael Graves said it took about 15 minutes to dig Holmes out of the snow. CPR was performed at the scene without success and also was attempted in the air while Holmes was taken by helicopter to the hospital, Graves said.

A Holmes family representative declined an interview with the Deseret Morning News on Sunday.

The Bonneville County, Idaho Sheriff's Office said Steinmann was one of four snowmobilers in the Palisades Peak area of Bonneville County and that at least two others were also caught in Saturday's avalanche but were not seriously hurt.

The sheriff's office said one snowmobiler who was not buried dug out two others who had been partially buried in the avalanche. The three than started to probe the area with tree branches for Steinmann, who was not wearing an avalanche beacon.

They sent for help, and two members of the Teton County, Idaho Search and Rescue Team, who were in the area, responded and helped find Steinmann. Life-saving measures were started but later called off by medical officials in Jackson, Wyo., according to the sheriff's office.

For information about avalanche danger in Utah, check www.utahavalanchecenter.com or call 1-888-999-4019 for a recorded forecast.

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Contributing: The Associated Press, Joe Dougherty

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E-mail: zman@desnews.com