Community raises $76K for West Jordan family after fatal hiking accident

WEST JORDAN, Utah —  Nearly 900 people have donated a total of $76,956 to help a West Jordan family after a hiking accident killed a father of three in late July.

Ryan Glad was 43 years old when he died on July 28, his obituary said. Glad was hiking Topaz Mountain with some of his in-laws and his 15-year-old son when the trail gave way, sending him over a 600-foot cliff.

“He was up on top with his son Jason, and he was standing right next to his son and he slid down the mountain off the side of the cliff,” said family friend Richard Paul Evans.

In the wake of Glad’s death, Evans started a GoFundMe campaign* to support the Glad family.

Offering support

Evans said that while Glad and his wife Rachel were very frugal, their family faced a huge and constant amount of medical bills.

One of Glad’s sons has Osteogenesis Imperfecta, more commonly known as brittle bone syndrome.

“Almost all of his time was spent taking care of his family because his son Nathan has brittle bone syndrome, and it takes everything from him. He can’t go anywhere, you see pictures of Ryan carrying his son in a backpack,” Evans said.

Additionally, Evans said Glad didn’t have life insurance, so his family didn’t have a way to pay for his funeral.

Glad’s father offered to pay for his son’s funeral, Evans said, to take the weight off of the family.

“I knew that was going to be a huge burden on them. But they wouldn’t ever put it on their daughter [in-law] and their grandchildren, they knew they had no money,” Evans said.

But over two weeks after Glad’s death, 856 people donated almost $77,000 to the family through Evan’s GoFundMe campaign.

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*KSL TV does not assure that the money deposited to the account will be applied for the benefit of the persons named as beneficiaries. If you are considering a deposit to the account, you should consult your own advisors and otherwise proceed at your own risk.