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An avalanche in Grand Teton National Park has claimed the life of snowboard mountaineer Jarad Spackman.

Spackman, a well-known Teton County resident and realtor, was caught while ascending the Apocalypse Couloir near the mouth of Death Canyon. He was carried approximately 1,000 feet, and his partner was unable to revive him, according to a park release. He was 40 years old.

The full press release follows after the jump.

Spackman was an experienced mountaineer who notched dozens of difficult descents throughout the Teton Range in the last 10 to 15 years. Only two weeks ago he explored a new route in the same area of Death Canyon with his brother, Brandon, and writer Christian Beckwith, who chronicled the experience.

This horrific news leaves many of us numb right now. My deepest condolences go out to Jarad’s family and friends.

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Posted under Deaths, Environment, Sports

Tags: avalanches, backcountry, grand teton national park, skiing, snowboarding

The Jackson Hole community is struggling to come to grips with the death yesterday of Moose hockey player Joe Casey.

Casey was a 13-year veteran of the Moose, the captain and all-time leading scorer. He was one of the funniest characters ever to grace the Snow King ice.

Teammates say he may have died of pneumonia. He had been feeling ill over the weekend and sought medical attention, but the severity of his illness may have been unknown. An autopsy is pending, his brother Mikey said. He was 37 years old.

Shock was the prevailing emotion late Monday night, as friends gathered in the Moose locker room at Snow King. While teammates traded stories, many people were still in disbelief, as if his death were a hoax he might have staged for a laugh.

Only three days earlier, on Friday night, he tallied two assists in Jackson’s 5-4 win over the Chicago Chargers, according to the club’s website.

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Posted under Deaths, Sports

Tags: moose, snow king

No sooner had skiers and riders relearned the joy of fresh powder yesterday than two people died in separate avalanches around Jackson.

Grand Teton National Park has identified the man killed in a slide in the northern part of the range as Nick Gillespie, a seasonal worker.

Gillespie was skiing with three companions on Survey Peak when the slide occurred, said spokeswoman Jackie Skaggs.

Earlier today authorities identified another victim from an avalanche in Hoback Canyon as Liza Benson, 28.

Gillespie, 30, worked on the park’s trail crew for several years, Skaggs said. He and his party skied into the Berry Creek area on the west shore of Jackson Lake on Thursday and had spent several days in the backcountry.

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Posted under Deaths, Environment, Sports

Tags: avalanches, grand teton national park, powder, skiing, snowboarding

The killing of a grizzly bear in Grand Teton National Park on Thanksgiving morning has federal officials under fire for continuing to allow the controversial elk hunt.

The incident was the third conflict in little over a year between hunters and grizzly bears in the Snake River bottom near Schwabacher’s Landing. In October 2011, a Jackson hunter was mauled by a griz but survived, and in October of this year a hunter from Cody lost his elk carcass to a family of four bears.

The killing, which came after the bear charged a man and his two sons, is the first ever by a hunter inside the park. Grand Teton is one of only a few national parks to allow hunting; known by the euphemism “elk reduction program,” the hunt was part of a compromise worked out to expand the preserve in 1950.

As grizzlies, protected under the Endangered Species Act, have pushed farther and farther south from Yellowstone in recent years, critics have called on the park to end the program, especially in the river bottom. Jackson resident Aaron Feuerstein has started a petition at change.org asking the federal government to stop the hunt. The petition had 81 signatures as of this morning.

(Photo by Sue Cedarholm)

Posted under Deaths, Environment, Politics, Sports

Tags: bears, grand teton national park, hunting, wildlife

Authorities have identified the hiker who died yesterday on Mount Glory as Wilson resident A.A. Zvegintzov, better known by his nickname, Sandy Z.

Zvegintzov appears to have died of natural causes related to a medical condition, according to the News&Guide. He was 73 years old.

Sandy Z was a river guide, ski instructor, sailor and painter. He likely was one of the first to use the phrase “downward mobility,” explaining his move from a career in law to guiding on the Snake for Barker-Ewing in the 1980s.

He notched more than 11,000 miles as a boatman and more than 3 million vertical feet as a ski instructor at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort. In recent years he focused on painting at his home studio on Fish Creek, accessed by the small wooden bridge behind Pearl Street Bagels.

His full name was Alexander Alexandrovich (Russian for Alex Jr.). A Philadelphia native, he moved to Jackson Hole in 1972. His tall, bony frame was hard to miss.

I wrote a profile of him for the JH News in 1999, after he returned from a four- year, solo sailing voyage around the Caribbean. “It was a fabulous adventure,” he told me. “Not many people on the face of the Earth are going to do that.”

(Photo by John Slaughter)

Posted under Art, Deaths, Sports

Tags: river running, skiing, teton pass

Jackson Hole skiers are mourning the loss of longtime instructor and guide Theo Meiners, who died in a fall from an escalator balcony last night while attending a snow science conference in Alaska. He was 59 years old.

Meiners had taught skiing at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort and owned Alaska Rendezvous Heli-Guides. He worked in the ski industry for more than 30 years and was regarded as an expert on avalanche safety.

On the slopes at Jackson Hole, Meiners was revered as a guru who used to wax philosophical about skiing and snow. He enjoyed the winter of a lifetime this year in Alaska, with massive snowfall, and he regularly shared his joy and insights with friends on Facebook. This post from July 15 accompanied a photo of an Alaskan mountain called Happiness, with a 5,200-vertical-foot north face:

Pursuit of Happiness and the wish that Happiness should not be a quick moment, like a big laugh after a joke or a smile at a compliment ,it is a state of being, and we all have the right to this pursuit! Work where you want and do what you love friends and find happiness

There’s no doubt Meiners found it.

He leaves behind a son, Aidan, and daughter, Ali.

Posted under Deaths, Ski Resorts, Sports

Tags: jhmr, skiing