Farmington man dies in avalanche near St. Joe

Shane St. John, 35, Farmington, life-long county resident, was killed in an avalanche 20 miles northeast of Calder, Idaho, last Wednesday, Dec. 29. Searchers recovered St. John’s body under an estimated nine feet of snow at about 11:30 p.m., eight hours after receiving the report that he was missing.

According to the report from the Shoshone County Sheriff’s office, St. John was snowmobiling with a friend last Wednesday on the Mastodon Road.

Around 1:30 p.m., the other rider noticed St. John was missing and turned around to find him. He located tracks leading into a large avalanche site but no tracks coming out of the site. After searching for two hours, the rider contacted authorities.

Forest Service officers, St. Joe Valley Search & Rescue and St. Joe Snow Riders all assisted the Shoshone deputies with the search.

St. John farmed with of his parents, Dan and Maureen St. John outside Tekoa. He lived near Farmington with his wife, Amy St. John and young children, Decker, 2, and Piper, 4 months.

St. John grew up on his family’s farm and graduated from Tekoa High School in 1993 and from WSU in 1997 with a degree in Business Management.

St. John snowmobiled for years and at times raced semi-professionally around the northwest, according to Brad Hamburg of Harvard, Idaho, a long-time friend.

Hamburg and St. John also competed together in local motorcycle moto-cross races for many years.

Palouse council member Mike Milano worked with St. John for a time at a manufacturing company outside Potlatch.

“He was a heck of a nice guy,” Milano said.

Shoshone county sheriff officials said avalanche conditions in the high country were very extreme due to four or five feet of powdered snow that fell on hard packed snow.

St. John was the fourth fatal victim of avalanches in Shoshone County since 2004. The other three were back country skiers killed in the Lone Lake area above Mullan.