Three skiers believed dead after being trapped by avalanche in Alaska are identified

A trio of skiers believed to have been killed by an avalanche in the Alaska backcountry have been identified by authorities.

The men were named by Alaska State Troopers as David Linder, 39, of Florida, Charles Eppard, 39, of Montana, and Jeremy Leif, 38, of Minnesota.

They have yet to be recovered, but avalanche and recovery experts will attempt to conduct an aerial assessment of the slide area on Thursday to determine additional avalanche danger and recovery options, AST said.

The slide happened late on Tuesday afternoon near the skiing community of Girdwood, located about 40 miles south of Anchorage, Austin McDaniel, a spokesperson for the troopers, told The Independent.

Wildlife Troopers were notified of the slide at 5:10 p.m., with a preliminary investigation determining that three adult heliskiers had been caught in a large avalanche around 3:30 p.m., according to McDaniel.

Guides from the commercial heliskiing operation that the group was with immediately attempted to locate the skiers, and using avalanche beacons, the guides identified a probable area where the skiers were buried. It was estimated that the three men were buried in snow 40 to 100 feet below the surface.

The men were clients of Chugach Powder Guides, according to company spokesperson Tracey Knutson. The run was part of the company’s regular list, and they had been accompanied by a guide.

Knutson told Anchorage Daily News, that a fourth person in the group was not caught by the slide and was later removed from the mountain safely, as well as others who were on the same trip but skiing different runs. All were flown out without issue.

Three guides “were on scene immediately initiating rescue response and an emergency alert,” Knutson said. Three signals from the men’s emergency beacons had been picked up, with the lowest detected at nearly 45 feet down.

Numerous helicopters and guides ended the search around 4:30 p.m. after determining “that the victims were clearly unrecoverable” with available resources and that conditions posed a rescuer safety risk, she added.

Troopers said they plan to assess the area to see if recovery operations can be conducted safely.

“The guides were unable to recover the three skiers due to the depth,” an earlier press release from the AST read. “Due to considerable avalanche risk in this area and limited daylight, no further recovery operations were conducted on March 4th. On March 5th, Troopers plan to assess the area to determine if recovery operations can safely be conducted.”

Girdwood is the skiing capital of Alaska and home to the Hotel Alyeska, at the base of Mount Alyeska. At the top of the mountain is the Seven Glaciers Restaurant, named for its view.

Each winter, 25 to 30 people die in avalanches in the U.S., according to the National Avalanche Center.

Late last month, one person was killed in an avalanche that was believed to be triggered by a skier in Grand County, Colorado. It was the second reported avalanche in the county that day.

That death was the third in Colorado this winter and the second fatality in less than a week in that state, according to the Colorado Avalanche Information Center. A snowboarder was killed just two days earlier in a slide west of Silverton.

Other fatalities caused by avalanches in February included one person near Lake Tahoe and two backcountry skiers in Oregon’s Cascade Mountains. In Utah, a well-known outdoor guide was also caught in an avalanche and was killed.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.