Radio station owner, two friends killed after getting stuck in Alaska avalanche while heli-skiing

A radio station owner and his two friends were killed after heli-skiing onto a rugged Alaskan mountain and getting trapped in a massive avalanche on Tuesday.

David Linder, 39, Charles Eppard, 39, and Jeremy Leif, 38, were on a guided heli-skiing trip in the Chugach Mountains near Girdwood — about 40 miles south of Anchorage — when they were caught in a “large avalanche” at around 3:30 p.m., Alaska State Troopers announced on Wednesday.

Recovery workers were prevented from immediately searching for the men due to “poor weather conditions in the area that prevented helicopter flights” and “considerable avalanche risk,” troopers said.

The search for the three men didn’t begin until a day after the accident.

The skiers were feared to be buried in snow piles estimated to be “between 40 feet and nearly 100 feet deep.”

A fourth skier who launched with the group was rescued, the Anchorage Daily News reported.

A witness said the three skiers deployed their avalanche airbags — backpacks with a built-in airbag system designed to increase a person’s buoyancy and visibility in an avalanche — when they were being swept away in the snow, Chugach Powder Guides spokeswoman Tracey Knutson told the outlet.

The surviving skier said they heard someone shout “avalanche!” over the radio before the disaster began at about 3,500 feet altitude and finally stopped at around 700 feet, Knutson said.

Linder, a Miami resident, was the co-owner of Sub Arctic Media.

The company operates over 20 talk shows and music radio stations across Minnesota, including Radio Mankato, the Minnesota Star Tribune reported.

“I will remember Dave Linder as an amazing family man. One of the smartest people I’ve ever known and someone who lived life to the fullest,” the managing partner of Radio Mankato, Matt Ketelsen, said in a statement Thursday. “Dave cared about his radio stations and the communities that we serve.”

Ketelsen also said, “Dave was a great skier, a very confident, good skier.”

“He’d done this before. This wasn’t new for him.”

Linder leaves behind a wife and three children.

Eppard, of Bigfork, Montana, was “a loving father, devoted husband, incredibly thoughtful and hardworking employee and an overall amazing human being,” according to a GoFundMe set up to support his family.

The 39-year-old dad graduated from Gustavus Adolphus College in 2007 and worked in software for IBM since 2012, according to his LinkedIn.

“As little kids, I can’t remember exactly what age it started, but I just always wanted to be like my big brother,” his brother Jon said. “And he was super into skiing, so it got me into skiing because I wanted to be like him.”

He was weeks away from his 40th birthday, his brother revealed.

“He was a super passionate guy and anything he did, he was like all in on,” Jon said. “I just feel lucky to have had him as a big brother.”

Eppard leaves behind a wife, Brittany, and daughter, Belen.

Leif, of Minneapolis, was the CEO of Leif Consulting Group, a company he founded in December 2023, according to his LinkedIn.

The devoted Minnesota Vikings fan leaves behind a wife and two children, his Facebook shows.

Heli-skiers use helicopters to reach mountains in remote backcountry areas that are inaccessible by ski lifts to either ski or snowboard down.

The Chugach National Forest Avalanche Information Center forecast for the area, including Girdwood, listed “considerable” avalanche danger at higher elevations on Tuesday.

Linder, Eppard, and Leif’s deaths mark the deadliest US avalanche since three climbers were killed in a slide in Washington’s Cascade Range in 2023.

Before Tuesday’s tragedy, 15 people had been killed across the US by avalanches this winter.

with Post wires

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