The body of one of the three skiers who went missing in an avalanche in Alaska seven months ago has been found, authorities said Tuesday.
David Linder, 39, Charles Eppard, 39, and Jeremy Leif, 38, were heliskiing together on March 4 when they were swept away by an avalanche. Rescue efforts began immediately. The men appeared to be buried under between 40 and 100 feet of snow at the bottom of a steep slope. The snow’s depth and ongoing avalanche danger made it too hazardous for recovery teams to operate in the area.
At the time, a spokesperson for the Alaska State Troopers told the Associated Press that they did “not believe that any of the three missing persons survived the avalanche.” Officials said they would wait for area conditions to improve until attempting recovery efforts, which they warned at the time could take months.
Volunteers from the Alaska Mountain Rescue Group and Girdwood Volunteer Fire Department returned to the site of the avalanche on Friday, the Alaska Department of Public Safety said. They were able to recover the remains of one of the skiers. The man was not identified. The department said his remains have been transported to the state medical examiner’s office for identification.
The man had become caught in a log jam in the river flowing underneath the avalanche site, the department said.
Additional operations will be conducted to search for and recover the remaining men, the department said.
Linder, Eppard and Leif were all friends who grew up in Minnesota, CBS News Minnesota reported.
Girdwood is Alaska’s skiing capital. Heliskiing is an activity where participants use a helicopter to reach the top of a mountain in remote areas where there are no ski lifts.
Avalanches kill between 25 and 30 people each winter, according to the National Avalanche Center. In the 2024-2025 season, 23 people died in avalanches. The majority were skiers and snowboarders, according to the center’s data. The fatalities include a skier who died after the group he was with triggered an avalanche in Wyoming in January and a skier who was skiing down Alaska’s Mount McKinley with his partner when they triggered an avalanche in June.
