The president of ConocoPhillips Alaska was killed and another person was feared dead after the two were swept away while snowmobiling on Alaska's Kenai Peninsula, state police said. Jim Bowles, the head of the oil giant's Alaska operations, was with a dozen snowmobilers in the Grandview wilderness area near Seward when an avalanche roared down a slope Saturday, burying him and Alan Gage, AP reported. Bowles' body was recovered before nightfall, but Gage couldn't be located before the search was suspended because of darkness. The search was to resume Sunday weather permitting. Rescuers from his party pulled Bowles from the snow and administered cardiopulmonary resuscitation for 30 minutes to revive him but he was pronounced dead, troopers said. In another Alaskan avalanche Saturday, police said a skier was killed after being buried in a slide in the Hiland valley area near Anchorage. Members of the Alaska Mountain Rescue Group reached the man who was pronounced dead by a physician with the group. His name was being withheld pending notification of relatives. Bowles, 57, has headed Conoco Phillips Alaska since November 2004 and oversaw roughly 900 employees in the state, said spokeswoman Natalie Lowman. «He was a great leader for our company,» she said.
