The Silverton Standard & The Miner is reporting that a 19-year-old man from Durango died Saturday afternoon after tumbling into a stream. Apparently, he had been walking in a snowfield with his father and a dog near Chattanooga, just below Red Mountain Pass, before he fell into the stream.

San Juan County Coroner Keri Metzler identified the man as Devon Opalenik in a telephone interview Sunday night.

Opalenik’s father’s name was not immediately available.

Metzler said an autopsy is planned Wednesday afternoon or Thursday morning. She said she would be able to offer more information after the autopsy.

“It appears he was on a snowbridge, and it collapsed. He went into the creek and was trapped under snow,” Metzler said.

Contacted by phone Sunday afternoon, San Juan County Sheriff Bruce Conrad said he soon would be able to release more information about the victim.

“It’s a terrible thing that happened,” Sheriff Conrad said.

Conrad told the Standard that the Durango teenager who died had “walked up the snowfield and slipped on an incline into water underneath. The dog went in to help him,” Conrad said.

“We were able to recover the young man, and the dog came out alive,” Conrad said. “But the 19-year-old young man perished.”

The incident was reported at around 6 p.m. Saturday.

“Three hours later, he came out the other side,” Conrad said. The dog, a Great Dane-pit bull mix named Zia, emerged 5½ hours later.

cmcallister@durangoherald.com

An earlier version of this story gave an incorrect name for Keri Metzler, the county coroner.