Snowmobilers who died in Seeley Lake ID'd as Pablo, Belgrade men

Missoula County Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Paige Pavalone on Saturday identified the victims as 25-year-old Derek Flesch of Pablo and 28-year-old Kurt Starkel of Belgrade. They were among the group of five snowmobilers who set out across the lake shortly after dusk Friday.

Bob Parcell, the Missoula County Sheriff’s Office’s resident deputy in Seeley Lake, said Saturday the group had come over Jocko Pass from the other side of the Mission Mountains and spent the day in and around Seeley Lake. They stopped for dinner at a pizza restaurant in town, and when it started to get dark decided to head back across the pass and toward home instead of staying the night.

They cut across the southern part of Seeley Lake instead of taking Boy Scout Road around to the west side, Parcell said.

“It’s not uncommon – a lot of people do that,” he said.

Parcell said they needed to get off the lake's icy surface at Seeley Lake Campground, but had spread out as they made their way.

“They ended up going farther north, where it’s deeper and doesn’t freeze over,” he said.

The first two members of the group made it across, and when they realized the others hadn't arrived began to circle back toward the shoreline near the campground. When they heard a member of their group yelling for help, one crawled close enough to where he had gone through the ice to throw a rope bag and pull him out while the other called 9-1-1.

Parcell said after the call came in to dispatchers about 6:45 p.m., search and rescue teams and emergency medical crews raced to the scene, and Two Bear Air from Flathead County was alerted to the incident.

The 45-year old man who was pulled from the water was transported by ambulance to Providence St. Patrick Hospital in Missoula. He was wet and hypothermic when he was pulled from the water, but was stabilized. His name has not been released.

“We still didn’t know about the other two,” Parcell said. “We called, and their phones were still ringing, but they weren’t answering.”

Not knowing if Flesch and Starkel had made it to shore on their own, crews used spotlights to search the lake from shore. Parcell said until they knew the men were alive and it would be a rescue instead of a recovery, it was too dangerous to send crews into the icy water at night.

Three hours after Flesch and Starkel went into the water, Parcell said the Two Bear Air helicopter crew spotted them from the air minutes after arriving. The men had deployed avalanche airbags, but were face down in the water.

A search and rescue member was lowered by cable to help extract the bodies. They were rushed by ambulance to Missoula, but could not be resuscitated.

Parcell said he didn't know when the snowmobiles and other equipment that was still in the lake Saturday would be removed.

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Kurt Friede, owner of Kurt’s Polaris in Seeley Lake, said the weather has been unusually warm and the lake's surface is taking a long time to freeze over this winter.

“We haven’t advised anyone to go out on the lake yet this year,” he said.

It’s possible the snowmobilers became lost after dusk, he said, and without other tracks to follow missed where to come back to shore.

Friede said he went to the west side of the lake near Seeley Lake Campground while crews were searching for the snowmobilers Friday night and could tell from the helicopter lights there was still open water in the area.

Typically, Seeley Lake is fairly safe for snowmobilers to be out on by New Year’s – once there is 4 to 6 inches of solid ice – but Friede said he didn’t know if anyone had been out on it so far this year.

“I’m usually one of the first to go out there and even I haven’t yet,” he said.

Snowmobiler Tyler Smith said the deaths are a sad reminder of how quickly dangerous situations can occur. He and friend Justin Layman had traveled to Seeley Lake from their home in Havre for their first snowmobile ride of the season Saturday and were headed for trails west of the lake.

“It just reinforces to stay away from the lake when it’s too early in the season,” Smith said.