Avalanche buries at least 3 skiers near Anchorage, Alaska officials say

GIRDWOOD, Alaska (AP) — Three skiers who had flown by helicopter to a remote mountain range were swept away by an avalanche and likely killed under the weight of snow nearly as deep as a 10-story building, Alaska State Troopers said Wednesday.

If the deaths are confirmed it would be the deadliest U.S. avalanche since three climbers were killed in a slide in Washington’s Cascade Mountains two years ago.

While Alaska troopers had been able to assess the site, “based on the information provided by the operator, unfortunately, we do not believe that any of the three missing persons survived the avalanche,” Austin McDaniel, a spokesperson for the Alaska State Troopers, said in a text to The Associated Press.

The slide caught three heli-skiers late Tuesday afternoon in the Chugach Mountains near the skiing community of Girdwood, located about 40 miles (64 kilometers) south of Anchorage, said McDaniel. Heli-skiers use helicopters to reach mountains in remote backcountry areas where there are no ski lifts, and then they either ski or snowboard down.

Guides from the heli-skiing company attempted to locate the trapped skiers using avalanche beacons and identified a probable area where they were buried, at a depth of 40 feet (12 meters) to 100 feet (30 meters), McDaniel said.

“The guides were unable to recover the three skiers due to the depth. Due to considerable avalanche risk in this area and limited daylight, no further recovery operations were conducted on March 4,” he said.

Weather conditions as of midday had not allowed state Department of Public Safety aircraft to reach the site, McDaniel said. It was rainy, windy and foggy in Girdwood, with snow at higher elevations.

“We are constantly evaluating weather conditions with the goal of making it out there” Wednesday, he said.

The heli-ski operator was Chugach Powder Guides, McDaniel said. A woman who answered the phone at the company said it had no immediate comment. Its website describes Chugach Powder Guides as one of the original heli-ski operators in Alaska.

The avalanche site was 8 miles (13 km) northeast of the airport in Girdwood, in an area along the Twentymile River, according to the Chugach National Forest Avalanche Information Center.

An ongoing avalanche concern for the region in recent weeks has been a weak layer of snow buried two feet or more beneath the surface, said Andrew Schauer, lead avalanche forecaster with the Chugach National Forest Avalanche Information Center.

The center’s forecast for the Turnagain Pass area, which includes the Girdwood region, on Tuesday listed as “considerable” the avalanche danger at higher elevations. The forecast warned it would be “easy to trigger an avalanche up to 2′ deep” and added, “the safest option is to avoid steep slopes.”

More snow and wind Wednesday was adding weight and “and making avalanches a little bigger and more likely,” Schauer said. A foot or more of new snow with strong winds was expected at elevations above 1,500 feet or so, he said. Conditions were expected to remain dangerous even after the storm system passes.

A foot or more of new snow was expected at elevations above 1,500 feet or so, he said, with strong winds expected.

The center is urging people to avoid being right on or below steep slopes, he said. Conditions are expected to remain dangerous even after the storm system passes, he said.

Girdwood is the skiing capital of Alaska, and home to the Alyeska Resort, at the base of Mount Alyeska, where people downhill ski or snowboard amid stunning views of Turnagain Arm. At the top of the mountain is the Seven Glaciers Restaurant, named for its view.

Each winter, 25 to 30 people die in avalanches in the U.S., according to the National Avalanche Center.

Colorado experiences the most avalanche deaths, with 325 people killed since 1950. Alaska ranks second, with 172 deaths in that time period, according to the center.

In 2021, Czech billionaire Petr Kellner and four others died in a helicopter crash during a heli-skiing tour near Knik Glacier, in the Chugach Mountains just north of Anchorage. A year later, a heli-ski guide scouting an area for clients died when an avalanche carried his body nearly 1500 feet (457 meters) down a mountain, Alaska State Troopers said at the time.

Prior to this week's accident, 15 people had been killed across the U.S. by avalanches this winter. Among them were 10 backcountry skiers and snowboarders, four people on snow machines and a ski patroller, according to the Colorado Avalanche Information Center.

The most recent was last Friday in Washington state, where three snowmobilers were caught in a slide that buried and killed one person and injured a second in the Harts Pass area. One person was killed in an avalanche in central Colorado on Feb. 22. Authorities in Grand County responded to what they described as a skier-triggered avalanche in a steep area known as “The Fingers” above Berthoud Pass.

Elsewhere, three people died in avalanches Feb. 17 — one person near Lake Tahoe and two backcountry skiers in Oregon’s Cascade Mountains. On Feb. 8, a well-known outdoor guide was caught in an avalanche in Utah and was killed.

___

Associated Press writers Becky Bohrer in Juneau and Matthew Brown in Billings, Montana, contributed to this report.