The body of a missing Stanley man was recovered on the flanks of Castle Peak in a remote area of the White Cloud Mountains on Thursday, July 7, six days after he apparently attempted a solo snowboard descent of the peak's north face.
Jared Spear died of trauma and exposure after triggering a large, point-release wet-snow avalanche late in the afternoon of Saturday, July 2, according to a report from Janet Kellam, director of the Sawtooth National Forest Avalanche Center.
He was 31 years old.
Kellam said tracks visible from the air indicated Spear had made three or four turns off the summit of the 11,815-foot peak before triggering the avalanche, which carried him about 1,000 vertical feet through rocky, steep terrain. His body was found at 10,600 feet.
"He tumbled with it, he was not buried," Kellam said. "He was found off to the side of the (avalanche) debris—appearing that he had been able to move."
According to Spear's friend Charlie Thompson, Spear had lived in Stanley for about seven years, working as a carpenter. Stanley is 60 miles north of Ketchum, in Custer County.
Custer County Sheriff Tim Eikens said Spear did not tell anyone where he was going and did not leave a note. But friends did not become concerned enough to contact authorities until the evening of Tuesday, July 5.
"Nobody worried about the guy," said Redfish Lake Lodge General Manager Jeff Clegg, who knew Spear. "He was a free spirit ... he was always doing this kind of stuff."
A group of friends found Spear's body in the evening of Wednesday, July 6. The following morning, members of Custer County Search and Rescue loaded his body onto a Sawtooth Forest helicopter for extraction.
Eikens said Spear apparently suffered "significant trauma to the back and to the right arm," and that he survived for a period of time after the slide, but he did not know for how long.
Spear was wearing shorts, a T-shirt and a sweatshirt when he was found.
"Up there at that altitude, it's pretty cold—the lakes are still frozen," Eikens said, adding that all of Spear's camping gear was in his vehicle at the trailhead. "With what he was wearing, survival would be difficult even if you had the ability to use all of your motor functions."
Custer County Deputy Coroner Pete Isner, who examined Spear's body, could not be reached for comment.
Kellam said gauging avalanche hazards in late spring and summer is generally more predictable than in the winter, since the snow becomes denser and therefore more stable during the typical thaw-freeze cycle. But this summer is a bit different.
"The high mountain snowpack has been unusually loose and wet at high elevations this summer due to a combination of a weak, shallow snowpack throughout the entire winter, large amounts of snow at high elevations during May and very poor overnight freezes since early June," Kellam wrote in her report.
Typically, snow melts during the day and re-freezes overnight at high elevations, making travel in avalanche terrain generally safer in the morning before the snow becomes wet, loose and prone to sliding.
"If you're on a slope steeper than 34 degrees—or about the same pitch as an expert ski run—and you're sinking in over your boot tops in wet, loose snow, there is the possibility of triggering wet slides," Kellam said.
In her report, Kellam wrote that the conditions did not catch Spear off guard.
"Deep posthole tracks were observed climbing up sections of the face, so he was aware of the wet, loose nature of the snowpack," she wrote.
Kellam said tunnel vision may have led to his demise.
"He made a choice, he was very committed to a goal and that's when we see some of these avalanche incidents happen," she said. "They don't happen out of the blue, they come from decision making along the way.
"There are some days where the snow is stable and goals are attainable, and some days where you just need to say no."
Added Eikens, "We all have a lot to learn from this—you can't go into an isolated area by yourself without letting anyone know. We've all done it, and it's not a good thing to do."
Friends and family members held a memorial for Spear in Stanley on Sunday night.
Thompson, who knew Spear for about six years, said there was a great outpouring of grief from local residents.
"Everybody there thought that he was their best friend, because that's how he made you feel," he said. "He was a super guy who connected with kids, middle-aged people, and old people—it didn't matter.
"He's going to be missed dearly."
Spear's parents live in Alaska, and his sister lives in Boise, according to Eikens.
Including Spear, 28 people died in avalanches in the United States in the 2004-05 season, up from 23 the year before.
