Correction: Lake County Avalanche story

PORTAGE, Wis. — In a story Feb. 17 about two Wisconsin men who died in a Colorado avalanche, The Associated Press erroneously reported that both still lived in Portage, where they grew up. Jarrard Law still lived in Portage, but Justin Lentz had moved to Sun Prairie in recent years.

A corrected version of the story is below:

2 killed in Colorado avalanche came from Wisconsin

2 skiers killed in large avalanche in Colorado from Wisconsin, family and colleagues say

PORTAGE, Wis. (AP) — Two skiers killed in a large avalanche in Colorado were good friends who grew up in a small town in southern Wisconsin, relatives and colleagues said Monday.

Three other skiers were hospitalized following Saturday's avalanche near Leadville, Colo. Rescue crews found the two skiers' bodies Sunday afternoon near Independence Pass, about 80 miles southwest of Denver, the Lake County Sheriff's Office said.

Robert Lentz said his son, Justin Lentz, was one of those killed in the avalanche. The 32-year-old, who grew up in Portage and moved to Sun Prairie in recent years, loved to ski and started when he was 5 or 6 years old, his father said. He said his son was "a good kid" who worked as an electrician and was engaged to be married.

"Jarrard had great skills with people and was an integral part of our planning when it came to technology," Gierach said. Many staff members thought of him as a friend first and as a professional second, the superintendent said.

The school district planned to make grief counselors available to faculty and students.

Lentz and Law were close buddies who frequently went skiing, snowboarding and mountain biking together, said Joey Kindred, 28, who knew them both well.

Kindred recalled how Lentz enjoyed competing with his friends with over-the-top snowboard tricks, even though he had a bad shoulder that popped out of its socket whenever he crashed.

"He'd fall down so often we'd call him Man Down," Kindred said. "He'd laugh, get up and do it again. And when his shoulder popped out he'd call over to his fiancee — she's a nurse — and she'd pop it back in."

Kindred had gone skiing and snowboarding with Lentz and Law in the past. He said the two had only skied at resorts in Colorado so they wouldn't have been familiar with the back country trails.

"I just wish I could have been with them to stop them from going down those lanes," said Kindred, who used to live in Colorado.

Saturday's avalanche was the third deadly slide in Colorado in less than a week, authorities said Sunday.

Susan Matthews, a spokeswoman for the Lake County Office of Emergency Management, said seven skiers on Star Mountain near Leadville triggered the latest slide around 5 p.m. Saturday.

"They were found near the top of the avalanche and they had beacons on, which really helped a lot," Matthews said. "The terrain there is extremely steep."

Brian Lazar, deputy director of the Colorado Avalanche Information Center, said recent storms that have dumped up to 6 feet of snow in some parts of Colorado's mountains have left most of the mountains in a "historic avalanche cycle." Such conditions have not been seen in the region since at least the early 1990s.

The snow has fallen on top of weak layers in the snowpack.

"A little snow or wind or the extra weight of a person in the wrong place could trigger an avalanche," Lazar said.

He said Saturday's avalanche was at least a 3.5 on an intensity scale that goes from 1 to 5, with 5 being the most destructive. The avalanche snapped several mature trees as it rumbled down the slope.