Tucker Taffe, the Alta resident who died on Mt. Rainier on May 10, is being remembered by his family and friends with a memorial fund to benefit the Utah Avalanche Center.
33-year-old Taffe passed away after summiting Mt.Rainier. He was skiing down the Upper Nisqually Glacier when he fell into a 100-foot deep crevasse. He was unroped while skiing with a group of four friends. A nearby team of Alpine Ascents International mountaineering guides recovered Taffe’s body before rescue crews arrived with a helicoptor, which airlifted his remains off the mountain.
Tucker Taffe was originally from New York, but was living in Utah as an employee at the Alta Lodge. An avid backcountry skier, Taffe was well known among the Wasatch touring community.
In honor of his memory, Tucker’s family has established a memorial fund in his name at the Utah Avalanche Center to support avalanche forecasting and education in Utah and encourage Tucker’s supporters to contribute. To donate, visit the Utah Avalanche Center’s donation page.
Donations to the Utah Avalanche Center help pay for the website with avalanche and mountain weather forecasts, photo and video archives, educational modules, accident reports, snow profiles, user input forms, early morning weather and avalanche updates and avalanche awareness programs.
In addition, the Alta Lodge will hold a memorial for Tucker on Sunday, June 26 at 4pm. More details on the gathering will be forthcoming from the Alta Lodge’s Facebook page where you can also share photos and memories of Tucker.
You can read Taffe’s obituary from his hometown newspaper, the Poughkeepsie Journal.