Girdwood is a tourist community that caters to winter events, with downhill skiing and snowboarding at the Alyeska Resort in a spectacularly scenic location. After a gondola ride 3,200 feet (975 meters) up Mount Alyeska, diners can view seven glaciers from the restaurant named for that view.

Alaska Wildlife Troopers said an avalanche buried three skiers under a blanket of snow between 40 and 100 feet deep in a small resort town.

This is Alaska’s first fatal avalanche reported this season. It is also the country’s deadliest since February 2023.

Alaska State Troopers say three skiers who had flown by helicopter to a remote mountain range were swept away by an avalanche and likely killed under the weight of snow nearly as deep as a 10-story building.

A trio of skiers is likely buried under an avalanche near Anchorage, Alaska, that occurred Tuesday afternoon, but dangerous backcountry conditions have so far stymied recovery operations, officials announced.

Dangerous avalanche conditions in the area persist, stalling recovery efforts and prompting warnings from forecasters.

The avalanche occurred late Tuesday afternoon near Girdwood, a skiing community about 40 miles south of Anchorage, Alaska.

The three men killed Tuesday by a massive avalanche during a guided heli-skiing trip in the Chugach Mountains near Girdwood came together in Alaska after meeting years ago in Minnesota.

Charlie Eppard, originally from Mankato, and Jeremy Leif are two of the three skiers who went missing following an avalanche near a ski resort in Alaska.

Tuesday’s slide measured more than a half-mile long with a debris pile estimated to be 40 to 100 feet deep, authorities said.