ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — A ski guide from Bend who was critically injured when he was buried by an avalanche in Alaska has died.

Alaska State Troopers say 31-year-old Aaron Karitis was declared dead Monday. He was injured Saturday in Kicking Horse Valley west of Haines.

Troopers say the Southeast Alaska Backcountry Skiing Adventures guide was unconscious when he was pulled out of the snow.

The avalanche occurred shortly after Karitis finished checking conditions downslope from his clients. Troopers initially said the guide didn’t like the conditions and wanted to move.

But troopers spokeswoman Beth Ipsen on Monday said the agency misinterpreted information relayed from skiiers he was guiding.

Ipsen says he had just finished testing the snow and had given the skiers instructions on how to ski that slope when the avalanche occurred. He was not going to move them.

No clients were caught in the avalanche.

Friends in Bend are mourning the loss of a man who grew up on the slopes of Mt. Bachelor. “He was all about adventure,” Jeremy Nelson, owner of Skjeersaa’s Ski Shop, said Tuesday. “He had a company he started that was adventure travel. From surf travel trips to fishing trips to skiing trips, Aaron lived his life fully, the way most of us should be able to do, but he definitely did for sure.”