Multiple skiers have been trapped by an avalanche in the Alaska backcountry, according to Alaska State Troopers.
The slide happened late on Tuesday afternoon near the skiing community of Girdwood, located about 40 miles south of Anchorage, Austin McDaniel, a spokesperson for the Troopers, told The Independent.
Wildlife Troopers were notified of the slide at 5:10 pm, with a preliminary investigation determining that three adult heliskiers had been caught in a large avalanche around 3:30 pm, according to McDaniel.
Guides from the commercial heliskiing operation that the group was with immediately attempted to locate the skiers, and using avalanche beacons, the guides identified a probable area where skiers were buried.
It was estimated that the three adults were buried between 40 feet and nearly 100 feet deep
“The guides were unable to recover the three skiers due to the depth,” a press release from the AST read. “Due to considerable avalanche risk in this area and limited daylight, no further recovery operations were conducted on March 4th. On March 5th, Troopers plan to assess the area to determine if recovery operations can safely be conducted.”
Girdwood is the skiing capitol of Alaska, and home to the Hotel Alyeska, at the base of Mount Alyeska, where people ski or snowboard. 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.
Late last month one person was killed in an avalanche that was believed to be skier-trigged incident in Grand County, Colorado. It was the second reported avalanche in the county that day.
That death was the third in Colorado this winter and the second fatality in less than a week in that state, according to the Colorado Avalanche Information Center. A snowboarder was killed just two days earlier in a slide west of Silverton.
Other fatalities caused by avalanches in February included one person near Lake Tahoe and two backcountry skiers in Oregon’s Cascade Mountains. In Utah, a well-known outdoor guide was also caught in an avalanche and was killed.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
