Skier Andrew Seton’s tragic fall in Snowy Mountains ‘instantly’ fatal, coroner finds

A skier who died in a fall in a remote part of the NSW Snowy Mountains would have been killed nearly instantly, a coroner has found.

A backcountry skier who died during a high-impact fall in a remote part of the NSW Snowy Mountains would have been killed instantly but a search for him should have been launched sooner, a coroner has found.

An inquest earlier this year examined the death of Andrew Keith Seton, who died in an accidental fall after setting out alone to go backcountry skiing in the wilderness in the Kosciuszko National Park in September 2022.

The body of 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.

Mr Seton’s families watched via videolink as coroner Teresa O’Sullivan handed down her findings at Lidcombe’s NSW Coroner’s Court on Thursday morning.

Witnesses and fellow skiers told the court they saw Mr Seton travelling along the ridge line at Watsons Crag in a westerly direction between 11am and 1pm on Saturday, September 3.

Andrew Seton died while skiing in a remote part of the Snowy Mountains. Picture: Supplied/Facebook

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 backcountry on a day trip.

Police conducted inquiries on the Sunday but 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, halfway down a chute on Watsons Crag.

In her findings handed down on Thursday morning, Ms O’Sullivan found that Mr Seton died in an accidental fall, probably attempting to run down the Dog Leg Chute of Watsons Crag, lost control in the icy conditions before striking a rock below.

She found that his injuries would have been nearly instantly fatal.

Survivability expert Paul Luckin, who provided advice to police about the likelihood of Mr Seton being alive after his body was spotted, earlier told the inquest the impact of a high-velocity fall would have been instantly fatal.

The court was told he suffered: “unsurvivable head and chest injuries”.

“It was probable … that Andrew was unconscious from the moment he sustained the fall and therefore did not suffer,” Ms O’Sullivan said, adding that he would not have survived for “any appreciable amount of time” and that his injuries would have been “rapidly and possibly near instantaneously fatal”.

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

Over that weekend, the slopes were covered in “bulletproof” ice due to the weather conditions.

And one experienced backcountry skier described Watsons Crag as having some of the most technical and complex skiing conditions in NSW.

Watsons Crag where Mr Seton died while skiing in a remote part of the NSW Snowy Mountains. Picture: Supplied/NSW National Parks and Wildlife

It was a tough place to go skiing that weekend. Picture: Instagram

The inquest also examined the police response and the multi-agency search before Mr Seton’s body was discovered.

His mother, Janice Seton, told the inquest that she raised the alarm about her son on the Saturday evening after he failed to contact her in the afternoon.

His car was found in the carpark at Guthega at 11pm but police did not immediately begin an emergency response.

He was not registered as a missing person until the following day, and the inquest examined whether he should have been listed as missing earlier.

NSW Missing Persons Registry manager Ritchie Sim told the court that he believed Mr Seton should have been recorded as a missing person straight away – though he described the police search as adequate.

When police completed a “search urgency assessment tool”, it registered a “evaluate, monitor and advise” response.

The ground search began on Monday morning and was made up of three teams from NSW Police, National Parks and Wildlife Service, paramedics and the SES.

Ms O’Sullivan found that the first risk assessment made by police was not appropriate and attempts should have been made to launch a helicopter search at first light the day after his car was found.

“I find that that initial police response to the report was not adequate and further find that a search and rescue operation should have commenced earlier,” Ms O’Sullivan said in her findings.

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.

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

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

Police told the inquest that at the time they could not confirm whether Mr Seton had carried his personal locator beacon into the backcountry.

The court was told that Mr Seton did not fill out a trip intention form, which would have informed authorities about his intended destination.

As she read out a summary of her findings on Thursday morning, Ms O’Sullivan took a moment to give her thanks to Mr Seton’s family and his loved ones, saying they all missed him and his “beautiful, caring, adventurous” nature.