Alaska State Troopers say three heli-skiers are presumed dead after they were caught in a massive avalanche Tuesday near Girdwood, where forecasters said snow falling Wednesday would only make nearby mountains more dangerous.
Troopers said in an online dispatch that the avalanche caught the skiers at about 3:30 p.m. near the west fork of the Twentymile River, about 8 miles northeast of the Girdwood airport in an area only accessible by air. Guides from the heli-skiing company they were flying with immediately tried to locate them.
“Using avalanche beacons, the guides identified a probable area where skiers were buried between 40 feet and nearly 100 feet deep,” troopers said. “The guides were unable to recover the three skiers due to the depth.”
Troopers spokesman Austin McDaniel said the heli-skiing flight was operated by Girdwood-based Chugach Powder Guides. A person who answered the company’s phone Wednesday declined to comment. A Homer lawyer specializing in recreation and adventure law, who told the Anchorage Daily News she was acting as a spokesperson for the heli-skiing company, refused to comment to Alaska Public Media.
Troopers have not yet released the skiers’ names.
McDaniel said in a text message Wednesday morning that none of the skiers are thought to have lived.
“Based on the information provided by the operator, unfortunately, we do not believe that any of the three missing persons survived the avalanche,” he said.
This is Alaska’s first fatal avalanche reported this season. It is also the country’s deadliest since February 2023, when an avalanche killed three climbers in Washington state’s Cascade mountains, according to a national database.
The last time as many people died in an avalanche in Alaska was February 2021 on Bear Mountain near Chugiak. Troopers said at the time that three climbers ascending a technical route of the mountain were found dead, beneath what appeared to be a recent avalanche.
Initial recovery efforts unsuccessful
Tracey Knutson, the lawyer acting as a spokesperson for Chugach Powder Guides, gave the Anchorage Daily News a detailed account of what happened in the slide, from the heli-ski company’s point of view.
Knutson told the ADN that the skiers were on a regular run for the company and that witnesses saw all three skiers activate avalanche airbags when the slide started, at an elevation of about 3,500 feet. One person who was in the group and not caught in the avalanche was safely rescued, Knutson told the ADN.
Three guides reached the debris, which had slid about 2,800 feet, and detected three signals from beacons the buried skiers wore, Knutson told the ADN.
She said numerous helicopters and guides ended the search around 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, determining “that the victims were clearly unrecoverable” with the resources they had and that the conditions posed safety risks to rescuers.
Troopers said no other recovery efforts were made Tuesday due to avalanche risk and limited daylight.
Poor weather conditions prevented Troopers and avalanche experts from reaching the site Wednesday to assess whether it was safe enough to resume recovery efforts.
Avalanche danger persists
The Chugach National Forest Avalanche Information Center reported considerable avalanche danger in the area Tuesday at elevations above 1,000 feet. Its forecast noted the possibility of human-triggered avalanches, with up to 2 feet of wind-blown snow atop a weak frost layer. The forecast advised avoiding steep slopes.
Knutson refused to answer any questions from Alaska Public Media, including about what safety measures the guides took, how they decided to take clients skiing with “considerable” avalanche danger in the area or what decisions led to three skiers, an uncommonly high number, getting caught and buried. She said such questions were inappropriate as the recovery effort was still underway.
Meanwhile, the National Forest’s lead avalanche specialist, Andrew Schauer, said Wednesday he was still concerned about the “tricky” buried frost layer.
“As I look out the window, it's snowing hard in Girdwood right now, so we're just adding more snow and more weight on top of this weak snowpack,” Schauer said. “And even after this storm passes, conditions are going to remain dangerous, because that weak layer exists, and we're just adding more stress and making avalanches potentially bigger now that we're adding more snow to it.”
Several other groups skiing in the area triggered avalanches Tuesday and were not caught, Schauer said.
Schauer said he couldn’t speak to the depth of Tuesday’s burial or whether it was uncommon for as many as three people to be buried, which he said was “not unheard of.”
The local ski community was feeling somber about the three fatalities, Schauer said.
“It's a very tight community, so we're really feeling for the operators and for the families and friends of those people involved,” he said. “And at the same time, we're all concerned, looking for the next few days and weeks ahead, because we're going to be dealing with this problem for a while, and we're just really hoping that people pay attention and are are willing to use mellow or lower-angle terrain, because we're dealing with this dangerous snowpack.”
