Bodies of Kip Garre and girlfriend Allison Kreutzen discovered near Split Mountain
Kip Garre, a talented skier, guide and mountaineer, along with his girlfriend Allison Kreutzen, were recently killed in an avalanche on Split Mountain in the Eastern Sierra outside of Bishop, California. Their bodies were discovered on Thursday, April 28,
during a search-and-rescue operation.
Garre and Kreutzen went down to ski the Split Couloir on Split Mountain on Tuesday, April 26. The pair had a habit of calling up their friends at the end of the day and letting them know that everything was fine. However, this time nobody heard from them.
The pair had not returned back.
Getting alarmed after not hearing from them for two days, their friends went out to search for the missing pair. Seven of Garre’s friends participated in the search and rescue operation that went down on Thursday.
The pair was eventually discovered, partially buried in snow, by the friends rescue crew. Though the bodies have been dug out, the strong winds have not allowed the helicopter to fly in and take the bodies out yet. The winds are expected to calm down in
a day or two.
A 38-year-old Garre was originally from Hancock, New Hampshire but had moved to Tahoe in the early 1990s to ski. A while after he shifted to Tahoe, he got into big mountain skiing. He also went on to become a guide at Points Borth Helo-Adventures in Cordova,
Alaska, as well as an athlete for Mountain Hardwear and K2. Garre travelled all around the globe to ski the mountain in various countries, including Pakistan, China, Alaska and Antarctica.
When freeskier Arne Backstrom got killed on Pisco Mountain in Peru in June 2010, Garre was there with him. Unfortunately, almost a year later, death returned to claim him, along with his girlfriend, Kreutzen.
The couple was adored by their friends. Talking to a journalist about the pair, their friend Robb Gaffney said, “Kip’s been a part of our life for a long time in Squaw and he’s just this special guy who everyone loves. And a little more than a year ago,
he started dating Allison. She’d just moved out from Telluride and she was just a gem. Everyone loved her, and loved them as a couple. So it was just horrible to come up on this debris pile and see this ski there.”
We offer our sincere condolences to the relatives and friends of Garre and Kreuzen. May their souls rest in peace.
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