Alaska State Troopers avalanche experts and rescue teams were unable to access the slide zone near Girdwood on Wednesday due to bad weather; officials said the site, which is in the remote Chugach Mountains, could only be reached by air.
Authorities in Alaska plan to arrive on Thursday at the scene of the Alaska heli-skiing avalanche to recover three skiers buried under deep snow. The avalanche occurred Tuesday afternoon after a helicopter dropped skiers onto a backcountry peak.
Three skiers were trapped beneath an estimated 30 feet of snow when the snow avalanche began at about 3,500 feet and went down to 700 feet. According to the witnesses, the men’s avalanche airbags, which are meant to hold victims close to the surface, were deployed, but the amount of snow overpowered them.
Although emergency personnel arrived promptly and picked up signals from the skiers’ emergency beacons, they lacked the tools needed to conduct a thorough recovery. Authorities identified the three missing men as Dave Linder, 39, from Florida; Charles Eppard, 39, from Montana; and Jeremy Leif, 38, from Minnesota.
Linder, co-owner of Subarctic Media, was a seasoned skier vacationing in Alaska. His business partner Matt Ketelsen described him as a devoted father and passionate entrepreneur. Eppard, who worked remotely for IBM, deeply loved skiing.
His brother Jon recalled how their shared passion connected them despite living in different states. Although they did not speculate on the exact reason for the slide, avalanche experts pointed out that a fragile layer of snow was beneath the new precipitation.
With further snow and wind worsening the situation, the Chugach National Forest Avalanche Information Center warned of considerable avalanche danger on Tuesday. While officials evaluated whether the situation would permit safe retrieval operations for the Alaska heli-skiing avalanche incident, rescue efforts persisted.
