Murphy was doing avalanche mitigation with a team of ski patrollers on Lincoln Mountain — a dome peak within the Mammoth Mountain ski area — when an avalanche broke loose in an area known as The Avy Chutes on Friday, Feb. 14. The accident occurred after approximately six feet of snow fell in 36 hours following a heavy Sierra snowstorm.

A Mammoth Mountain ski patrol employee has died after sustaining serious injuries last week from an avalanche.

Two ski patrol members were trying to mitigate the threat of an avalanche after a storm had dumped about 6 feet of snow on the mountain in 36 hours.

Ski patrollers from mountain resorts in California, Nevada, and Colorado are at Mammoth Mountain in the Eastern Sierra, helping to provide safety following an avalanche that caught two patrollers, leaving one critically injured.