The slide happened late Tuesday afternoon near the skiing community of Girdwood.
Three skiers who had flown by helicopter to a remote mountain range were swept away by an avalanche and were 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 have not been able to assess the site yet, “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 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 the mountain.
Guides from a heli-skiing company attempted to locate the skiers using avalanche beacons and identified a probable area where the skiers 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.
