Avalanche Kills Skier on South Teton

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An avalanche killed a backcountry skier in Grand Teton National Park on Sunday morning.

Wray Landon, Brady Johnston and Nathan Brown – all locals to the area – had just summited South Teton (12,514') via the Northwest Couloir. They had skied a few hundred vertical feet down the Southeast Face when the snow fractured, caught Landon in a slide, and carried him over a 1,500' cliff.

Brown called 911 at 11:30 Sunday morning. Park rangers and search-and-rescue volunteers flew a helicopter to the site, where they located and recovered the body. Landon's remains were found 2,000 vertical feet below the two-foot crown.

Landon, 30, was an avid skier who had coached skiing at Grand Targhee Resort in Alta, Wyo. Ski partner Steve Romeo called Landon "a very strong athlete, but also very soft spoken." More information is available at jhnewsandguide.com and tetonat.com. An in-depth account by Brown is available at mountainproject.com.