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Flying over the Dalzell Gorge today you could see the faint Iditarod Trail snake its way through the canyon. But at one point, the trail disappears, buried under a massive avalanche. And that is where Alaska State Troopers say Richard Strick Jr. is buried, too. “Our estimation is that he’s under about 30 feet of snow right now which is going to make it almost impossible to find him with poles or regular things that you would use in an avalanche type of situation,” said Trooper spokesman Greg Wilkinson.

The Dalzell Gorge is known well among mushers, often being a rough winding trail. Troopers say after Strick and three others finished manning the Rohn checkpoint for the Tesoro Iron Dog race, they snowmachined into the gorge clearing trail for the Iditarod. “Whether it’s the Iron Dog, he was in Rohn at that checkpoint in the Iron Dog, or whether it’s looking at seeing how trails are holding up for the Iditarod or for a lot of the activities that go on in these rural communities, I know that the community of McGrath is really going to miss him,” said Chas St. George, Iditarod race spokesman.

Richard Strick is from McGrath and he worked for the school district. His long time girlfriend works there too and Strick’s father is on the school board. It’s a difficult time for the district. “It’s impacted my entire staff as so often happens in smaller communities such as McGrath. It’s just a real tragedy to all of us and a great loss for us,” said Joe Banghart, Iditarod-area school district superintendent. While close to 20 of Strick’s friends and family traveled to Rohn for a recovery effort, troopers are strongly advising against it, with avalanche conditions in the gorge still considered dangerous. “The words that the avalanche expert used with us was that this was an extreme hazardous avalanche area. He said it’s a red light area. It’s as far extreme as you can go on the scale and not someplace where we want to authorize people to be out in,” said Wilkinson. Officials say it’s unknown when it will be safe to get into the area to mount a body recovery. Meanwhile, Iditarod race officials say they will be closely monitoring the avalanche risk prior to the race, which takes off in two and a half weeks.

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