A backcountry skier who grew up in Minnesota and a fellow skier, missing for more than a week in the mountains of Grand Teton National Park, were found dead in their tent Sunday under 13 feet of avalanche debris and fresh snow.

Gregory Seftick, 31, a physician from Columbia Falls, Mont., who grew up in Afton, and Walker Kuhl, 30, of Salt Lake City, apparently were buried by an avalanche April 16 below Nez Perce peak in Garnet Canyon Meadows. Rescue workers, forced to suspend their search for three days last week while 3 feet of snow fell in the area, picked up signals from the skiers' avalanche beacons late Saturday. They returned Sunday and found the two men, still in their sleeping bags, in a tent next to a large rock.

The two men had planned to scale Grand Teton, a 13,770-foot peak, and ski back down last weekend, said David Francis, a family friend whose son, Jon, Seftick's classmate at Stillwater High School, died in the Sawtooth Mountains in Idaho in 2006.

Park public affairs officer Jackie Skaggs said the two were experienced, familiar with the park, and well-equipped, and had checked in at the park headquarters before heading out. But, she said, conditions April 16 indicated "considerable" avalanche danger at 9,500 feet, which is where they were found.

The park in northwestern Wyoming has received more than 600 inches of snow this winter -- 50 percent more than normal. The avalanche was about 200 feet wide and 300 yards long -- unusually large, Skaggs said.

"This time of year the snow pack changes every day," Skaggs said. "The conditions were ripe to go, for whatever reason. And the two young men were in the wrong place at the wrong time."

Said Francis: "He was fit, young, strong and experienced, and he'd been in the Tetons before. He'd done winter mountain skiing before. What appears to have happened is that they pitched their tent in an unfortunate location."

Francis said Seftick's parents did not wish to talk with the news media.

Skaggs said the park will not be changing any routines due to the deaths of the two men.

"We don't restrict where people go and what they do," she said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report. Bill McAuliffe • 612-673-7646