The three men had flown in from other states for a day of heli-skiing near Girdwood, Alaska. They were friends from high school in Minnesota, all married with children: David Linder, 39, of Florida; Charles Eppard, 39, of Montana; and Jeremy Leif, 38, of Minnesota. On a Tuesday afternoon in March, an avalanche swept them out of sight.
The slide came down in the west fork of the Twentymile River, in the Chugach mountains about 40 miles (65km) east of Anchorage. Alaska State Troopers said the men were on a commercially guided trip with Chugach Powder Guides, a longtime Alaska heli-ski operator. A fourth member of the group escaped. The avalanche is estimated to have run about half a mile and dropped about 2,000ft down the peak.
What the guide saw
A guide who watched it happen later testified that he saw the slide start above the skiers. He radioed them to deploy their backpack airbags and saw all three do it. Then he watched them disappear. Once the snow settled, he and others climbed onto the debris and searched with beacons. They picked up three separate signals, from 42 feet to 100 feet down.
Guides could not dig that deep. The Chugach National Forest Avalanche Information Center reported the area where skiers were probably buried at between 40ft and nearly 100ft. “The guides were unable to recover the three skiers due to the depth,” its statement said. Storms were forecast to bring more snow and wind, and daylight was short, so the rescue was called off. The center offered its “sincere condolences” to the families.
Trooper Jesse Darby flew over the debris the next day with two guide company employees. He testified that the burials under hard-packed snow were “shockingly” deep. An emergency room physician in Anchorage told the same hearing that the amount of snow, and “the way it was funneled into a gorge” instead of spreading out downhill, made the slide deadlier.
A hearing, and a recovery
Several witnesses called the event “unsurvivable.” In April, an Anchorage jury at a presumptive death hearing unanimously found that the three men died that day.
At the time, it was the deadliest avalanche in the United States since three climbers were killed in Washington state’s Cascade mountains in 2023. The National Avalanche Center says between 25 and 30 people die in avalanches in the country each winter.
Searchers found one of the men on October 3, about 100 feet downstream of the slide area, lodged in a log jam in a river running beneath the avalanche zone. Volunteers from the Alaska Mountain Rescue Group and the Girdwood Fire Department went in aboard a troopers helicopter. The State Medical Examiner Office identified the remains as Linder. Eppard and Leif have not been found, and troopers spokesman Austin McDaniel said more overflights are planned as weather and other missions allow.
Sources
- Alaska avalanche: Three heli-skiers feared dead on mountain
- Body of heli-skier buried in March avalanche near Girdwood recovered as search continues for 2 others
Sources
- Alaska avalanche: Three heli-skiers feared dead on mountain
- Body of heli-skier buried in March avalanche near Girdwood…
