Three skiers feared to be dead in an Alaskan avalanche each had Minnesota connections.

They were identified on Thursday as Jeremy Leif, a 38-year-old who lived in Minnesota; and David Linder, a 39-year-old who was born and raised in Mankato but most recently lived in Miami, Florida. The third victim, Charles Eppard, 39, attended Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, a college spokesman confirmed. Alaska's Department of Public Safety released the skiers' names on Thursday.

Linder was an owner of Sub Arctic Media, which owns more than 20 talk show and music radio stations across the state. Managing Partner Matt Ketelsen said the three were on a helicopter ski trip with friends and that Linder was an experienced and avid skier.

He described Linder as a devoted father who always was spending time with his three boys and someone who cared deeply about the communities his radio stations served.

"Whenever we would talk on the phone, we would just talk about each other's kids," Ketelsen said. "First and foremost he was about his kids."

Linder moved to Florida with his family to attend law school, and still worked as a company owner remotely, Ketelsen said.

No city of residence was given for Leif, though his LinkedIn page lists him as a Minneapolis resident.

Alaska Wildlife Troopers were first notified of the avalanche near the west fork of 20 Mile River near Girdwood, south of Anchorage, at 5:10 p.m. on Tuesday, according to a DPS news release.

Staff from heli-skiing company Chugach Powder Guides attempted to locate the skiers using avalanche beacons and identified the probable area where the skiers were buried under somewhere between 40 and 100 feet of snow, the release stated.

Heli-skiing allows skiers to access more remote backcountry slopes, and pay for services such as Chugach Powder Guides to take them up in a helicopter to ski down mountains that aren't accessible via a ski resort's lifts.

They were unable to recover the skiers because of the snow depth. Due to "considerable avalanche risk" and limited daylight, recovery operations were ended on Tuesday evening.

On Wednesday, recovery teams that included troopers, avalanche experts and others could not assess the slide area for avalanche safety considerations because of poor weather conditions, the release said.

The recovery teams were attempting an aerial assessment of the slide area on Thursday to determine the level of avalanche danger and assess recovery options.