With posts on Pugski and from a friend on FB, I am reminded of the massive avalanche at Alpine Meadows which took out several buildings, the Summit Chairlift Terminal building, and buried 12 people.
This avalanche has always seems like a big deal to me, but more recently Ziggy's vet came to us to see if her father's vintage ski gear was worth anything. Then she shared that this gear was stuff her mom couldn't let go after her dad, a ski patroller at Alpine Meadows, died in the big avalanche.
This made it far more personal.
From the original news story in 1982:
On March 31, 1982, at 15:45 a large soft-slab natural avalanche released at Alpine Meadows Ski Area. The avalanche, releasing from the Buttress, Pond and Poma Rocks slide paths, swept down into the base area and parking lot of the ski area. The avalanche hit the Summit Chairlift Terminal building, the main ski lodge, several small buildings, and two chairlifts, and it buried the parking lot under 10 to 20 feet of snow. The Summit Terminal Building, which housed the ski patrol, avalanche control headquarters, lift operations, ski school and the main avalanche rescue cache, was completely destroyed. The day lodge sustained superficial damage, the two chairlifts were extensively damaged, and several small buildings were destroyed, as were several over-the-snow vehicles.
Of the seven people in the Summit Building at the time of the avalanche, three were killed. Three were recovered alive almost immediately, and one young woman was recovered alive after a five-day burial. Four people were buried in the parking lot and were killed. Altogether twelve people and one dog were victims of the avalanche. Seven of those twelve were killed. The dog survived a one-day burial. Total monetary loss was approximately 1.6 million dollars.
—Larry Heywood, The Avalanche Review, VOL. 10, NO. 5, MARCH 1992
Images from this video are sobering.
This avalanche has always seems like a big deal to me, but more recently Ziggy's vet came to us to see if her father's vintage ski gear was worth anything. Then she shared that this gear was stuff her mom couldn't let go after her dad, a ski patroller at Alpine Meadows, died in the big avalanche.
This made it far more personal.
From the original news story in 1982:
On March 31, 1982, at 15:45 a large soft-slab natural avalanche released at Alpine Meadows Ski Area. The avalanche, releasing from the Buttress, Pond and Poma Rocks slide paths, swept down into the base area and parking lot of the ski area. The avalanche hit the Summit Chairlift Terminal building, the main ski lodge, several small buildings, and two chairlifts, and it buried the parking lot under 10 to 20 feet of snow. The Summit Terminal Building, which housed the ski patrol, avalanche control headquarters, lift operations, ski school and the main avalanche rescue cache, was completely destroyed. The day lodge sustained superficial damage, the two chairlifts were extensively damaged, and several small buildings were destroyed, as were several over-the-snow vehicles.
Of the seven people in the Summit Building at the time of the avalanche, three were killed. Three were recovered alive almost immediately, and one young woman was recovered alive after a five-day burial. Four people were buried in the parking lot and were killed. Altogether twelve people and one dog were victims of the avalanche. Seven of those twelve were killed. The dog survived a one-day burial. Total monetary loss was approximately 1.6 million dollars.
—Larry Heywood, The Avalanche Review, VOL. 10, NO. 5, MARCH 1992
Images from this video are sobering.
