# Three skiers believed to be dead after avalanche in Alaska backcountry

## Slide on Tuesday buried multiple skiers, and state troopers are attempting to reach site on Wednesday

An  in  backcountry swept up and buried three skiers under a blanket of snow that could be as deep as a 10-storey building, Alaska state troopers said on Wednesday.

While 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.

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

The slide happened late on Tuesday afternoon near the skiing community of Girdwood, located about 40 miles (64km) south of Anchorage, said McDaniel.

“Troopers received a report of an avalanche that caught multiple individuals who were heliskiing yesterday afternoon near the west fork of 20 Mile River,” McDaniel said. “The company that they were skiing with attempted to recover the skiers but were unable to due to the depth of the snow.”

Girdwood is the skiing capitol of , 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 US, according to the National Avalanche Center.

One person was killed in an avalanche in central Colorado on 22 February. 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. It was the second reported avalanche in the county that day.

That avalanche 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 Crested Butte snowboarder was killed 20 February in a slide west of Silverton.

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

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