Details of skier’s death in Kosciuszko National Park revealed

A backcountry skier whose body was found on a rock on a steep and icy slope in the NSW Snowy Mountains after a two-day search was killed following a high-impact fall that would not have been survivable, a court has been told.

An inquest is examining the death of Andrew Keith Seton, who died in an accident after setting out alone to go backcountry skiing in the Kosciuszko National Park in September 2022.

The court was told Mr Seton, 24, was found on a slope at Watsons Crag on Monday, September 5, 2022, two days after he was last seen and contacted loved ones.

Witnesses and fellow skiers have told the court they saw Mr Seton travelling along the ridge line at Watsons Crag on the morning on Saturday September 4.

The alarm was raised on Saturday evening when his mother phoned police after he failed to contact her, as was his practice when going out into the wilderness on a day trip.

Police conducted inquiries on the Sunday and it wasn’t until the Monday that a search operation was launched.

On that afternoon, a police helicopter spotted Mr Seton’s body on a rock, near some fast-flowing water, on a chute on Watsons Crag.

His body wasn’t able to be recovered until the next day.

On that Monday evening, survivability expert Paul Luckin provided advice to police about the likelihood of Mr Seton being alive.

After viewing photos and video of the scene, he advised there was no possibility that Mr Seton survived.

“He could not have climbed there,” Dr Luckin told the inquest of the spot where Mr Seton’s body was found.

“To become airborne at the bottom of that very steep slope, he would have been travelling at a high speed.”

Dr Luckin said Mr Seton would have hit the rock at a “high velocity”.

“I have no question it was instantly fatal,” Dr Luckin said.

The court was Mr Seton suffered injuries, including to his head, consistent with a fall from a height.

Mr Seton set out on Friday, September 2 from his Canberra home for Jindabyne, spending that night in his car as he headed into the Kosciuszko National Park.

The following day he drove to Guthega, where his troop carrier was later found in a carpark.

He contacted his girlfriend via text message on Saturday morning, sending her a selfie with the caption “windy up top”.

Other skiers reported having seen a solo skier travelling along a ridge line at Watsons Crag a short time later.

He was carrying a personal locator beacon; however, it needed to be activated manually.

Senior Constable Benjamin Antrum was involved in the search for Mr Seton from early on Sunday morning.

He spoke to Mr Seton’s girlfriend, who relayed a message that he had planned to ski at Mt Carruthers, Watsons Crags and the Sentinel, the court heard.

The court has heard Mr Seton’s girlfriend said she had watched him pack his car before the trip and checked he had his personal locator beacon with him.

Constable Antrum was questioned by coroner Teresa O’Sullivan if the fact that Mr Seton hadn’t activated his beacon should have indicated he was seriously injured.

Constable Antrum said at that time he couldn’t confirm if Mr Seton had taken his emergency beacon into the backcountry.

“Whether he had it on his person, I did not know,” he told the court.

He also said he couldn’t know for sure where Mr Seton had travelled to.

He noted that over that weekend, the slopes were covered in “bulletproof” ice, and that skiers often changed their destinations if conditions were dangerous.

One witness, Hugh Newall, told the court he found Mr Seton’s personal locator beacon in the following weeks.

He said he was skiing Watsons Crag when he saw something bright in the snow and found the emergency beacon inside its neoprene pouch.

It had not been activated and he handed it in at Jindabyne Police Station.

Mr Newall, an experienced skier who has skied Watsons Crag more than a dozen times, described the slope as challenging and complex.

He noted that because skiers approached the Watsons Crag slopes from above, as opposed to climbing up it first, it was hard to assess the conditions.

The NSW police have located a body in the Snowy Mountains, believed to be a missing 23-year-old skier. The body was found in a remote area known as Watsons Crags yesterday afternoon during a large-scale search for the skier, who has been missing since Saturday. Specialist police are working to retrieve the body after a recovery operation was suspended yesterday due to steep terrain and hazardous conditions.

Doug Chatten, who operates Snowy Mountains Backcountry Tours, advised police during the early stages of the search about possible locations where Mr Seton might have been skiing.

The court was told Mr Seton did not tell anyone where he was skiing that day and did not complete a trip intention form, which would have alerted authorities where he was heading and his possible location.

Mr Chatten described Watsons Crag as “very challenging” and somewhere where skiers “go to test your skills”.

On the day Mr Seton went missing, Mr Chatten was skiing at nearby Mount Tate and said conditions were icy and “diabolical”.

“I’ve skied around the world and I’ve had some of my most challenging skiing right there,” Mr Chatten said.

The inquest before Coroner Teresa O’Sullivan continues.