The Legacy Of Alpine Meadows: The 1982 Avalanche

Today marks the 40th anniversary of the March 31, 1982 avalanche at Alpine Meadows. It remains the deadliest avalanche in the modern history of California. Seven lives were lost, one person was miraculously rescued, and dozens of rescuers lives were changed forever. The lessons learned from the avalanche brought about change in how avalanches are forecast, how ski areas can mitigate the risks, and how we respond to avalanche disasters.

Back in 1982, I was pretty remote from the situation. I was majoring in Geology at the time at Humboldt State, with a minor in setting up ski trips to Alpine Meadows. Flooding in the north state prevented many ski trips that spring and the news of the avalanche arrived several days late in the San Francisco Chronicle. Shortly after that things like getting married, getting a teaching job and building a house got in the way of my ski habit. I started actively skiing again around 1992, but it wasn’t until we moved to the area in 2003 that I realized how deeply the Alpine Meadows community was affected.

I first read Jennifer Woodlief’s A Wall Of White in 2010, shortly after it was released. By that time, I had already set off some small avalanches, mostly out of bounds around Alpine Meadows. Reading the book inspired me to take an Avy 1 course and get a bit more educated on the subject.

Recently, I had the chance to see Buried: The Alpine Meadows Avalanche, produced by Alpine Meadows residents Steven Siig and Jared Drake. After seeing the previews of the film over the last year, I realized that I’ve become friends with some of the key people involved that day. Watching the movie was heart wrenching for me, knowing how deeply impacted my friends were by the incident, friends that I ski with several times a week. After watching the movie, I reread A Wall Of White, which has a whole new depth as I realize how I’ve become a part of the Alpine Meadows community. I encourage you to read the book and see the movie.

A Short Synopsis Of The 1982 Avalanche

Alpine Meadows received 6 to 7 feet of snow in the days leading up to March 31, 1982. Most of the local roads were barely passable and the ski area only operated 3 lower lifts the day before the avalanche. The winds were blowing over 100mph at the top of the mountain, and standard avalanche control routes via chairlift access were going to be impossible. At 7:30am, mountain manager Bernie Kingery and general manager Howard Carnell made the decision to keep the mountain closed. Employees were called and told to stay home for the day – although this was long before cell phones and many employees did not even have a landline or an answering machine.

Patrollers that were onsite completed what avalanche control they could using artillery and limited hand charges. Visibility was extremely poor so it was difficult to see if the control work produced any slides, other than a large slide on Scott. Most patrollers were sent home at that point, except for a small crew led by Larry Heywood, the assistant ski patrol director, that proceeded to Squaw Valley at 3pm. It was standard procedure to ride the KT-22 lift to provide access to the ridge above Alpine Meadows Road to throw hand charges to protect the road.

Back on the mountain, Bernie Kingery and Beth Morrow were in the Summit building, preparing to document the avalanche control work on the road. Jake Smith got on a snowmobile and prepared to act as a road guard at the top of the road. Anna Conrad, and her boyfriend, had cross-country skied to the resort and were retrieving gear from her employee locker in the Summit building. Also present in the building were employees Randy Buck, Tad DeFelice and Jeff Skover. Unaware of the serious danger, Dr. Leroy Nelson, his 11 year old daughter Laura, and his friend David Hahn were in the parking lot, having cross country skied over from the Alpine Meadows condos to check the resort out.

At about 3:45pm, Jake Smith yelled “Avalanche!” into the radio, seeing a slide that started on The Buttress above the parking lot. At the same time, nearby the Pond Slope and Poma Rocks slide paths also released. The slide demolished the Summit building, and continued on toward the lodge, filling the breezeway with snow and pushing into the lodge nearly to the back wall. The parking lot was buried to a depth of 11 or 12 feet.

Buck, DeFelice and Skover were quickly extracted alive from the remains of the Summit building. Most likely they were sheltered by the huge mass of the counterbalance for the Summit lift. Two equipment operators had witnessed the burial of the Nelsons and Hahn in the parking lot, allowing for the relatively quick recovery of their bodies. Jake Smith was also found near the bridge over Bear Creek on Chalet Road.

Another storm moved in on April 2nd, and most of the rescue/recovery efforts around the Summit building had to be put on hold for a couple of days. Somewhere around another 4 feet of snow fell. It was a difficult decision, but it was too dangerous for searchers due to the increasing risk of additional avalanches. After 5 days, the bodies of Beth Morrow and Frank Yeatman were recovered. A trained search dog, a German Shepard named Bridget, was instrumental in locating Anna Conrad. She was located 117 hours after being trapped under lockers in the lower level of the Summit building. Mountain manager Bernie Kingery was the last victim to be found, his frozen fist attempting to punch upward through the snow.

• Larry Heywood wrote a more complete synopsis of the avalanche for The Avalanche Review in 1992. You can download an excerpt here.
• Today’s showing of Buried: The Alpine Meadows Avalanche at the Alpine Meadows lodge is sold out. There are additional screenings of the film at the Tahoe Art Haus & Cinema this week. Buy tickets here. The film is not expected to be released for streaming until late 2022 or 2023.
• Jennifer Woodlief’s book A Wall Of White is available at local booksellers or here.

Bob Lynn shared his photos from the avalanche. Lynn was the Co-Director of lift operations that season and shared an office with his working partner Bill Davis in the Summit building. Fortunately Bob had gone home that day after calling off the lift operations crew. Here’s the gallery:

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This Was Not The Only Avalanche

The factors that make Alpine Meadows an amazing ski area are the same factors that make it avalanche prone. It’s worth remembering all that have lost their lives due to avalanches in the Alpine Meadows area. Here’s what I believe is a complete list:

• March 1976 – A large avalanche in Beaver Bowl took the lives of John Freitas, David Machholz and Dennis Graber
• March 1990 – An unnamed local skier died after setting off an avalanche in Munchkins (OB)
• February 2001 – Two local teens, Bryan Richmond and Brendan Allen, perished in an avalanche above Alpine Meadows Road
• March 2012 – An avalanche near Stanford Rocks (OB) took the life of Benny Brackett
• December 2012 – Patroller Bill Foster was killed during avalanche control work near South Face
• January 2020 – An avalanche in Townsend Gully near the Promised Land killed Cole Comstock

These are just the fatality incidents. There are definitely a much larger number of close calls, burials and partial burials over the years. Several of my friends admit to having set off avalanches and taking a ride or have been partially buried. Avalanches are predictable until they are not.

Avalanches are not going away. Looking at how climate change is affecting us, it’s not just that we are getting warmer and drier. The Sierra Nevada has always been a place where it’s a few big storms each year, usually atmospheric rivers, that build our snow pack. Climate change seems to be making our dry spells a bit drier and our wet spells a bit wetter. Think back to December, when it seemed like it might never stop snowing. You can bet that thoughts of large avalanches were running through the minds of those that are charged with keeping the mountain safe. It’s a part of living the Sierra Nevada winter life.

Some Thoughts…

Understand The Risks

Alpine Meadows is in the “Class A” designation for avalanche risk by the US Forest Service. The designation is given to areas that have a high frequency of avalanches of a dangerous size. Alpine Meadows received that designation in 1968, and that allowed the ski area to use artillery in the management of avalanche danger in coordination with USFS Snow Rangers. Squaw Valley, Sugar Bowl, Kirkwood and Mammoth share that designation.

We are never going to be able to completely control avalanches, at least not in the terrain where we enjoy skiing and riding. Certainly there have been some advances. Meticulous record keeping has allowed for better forecasting when it comes to which conditions are most likely to produce avalanches and where they might occur. The addition of Gazex exploders near High Yellow, along Peril Ridge and along Alpine Meadows Road reduce the number of hand charges that patrollers need to throw. They also help make travel along control routes safer before patrollers set out. More exploders will be added this summer to protect the gondola route. The fact is, it will never be possible to replace all hand charges with exploders. There’s just too many slide paths to control around Alpine Meadows.

What we can control is our own behavior. In cases around the world, avalanche deaths are often related to people being where they should not be. No amount of bombs thrown by patrollers, avalanche certifications we have or the latest and greatest new tools we carry can protect us with 100% certainty.

If you have spent much time hanging out around Alpine Meadows, you may have also noticed that a number of wholly unprepared skiers and riders ignore the dangers of leaving the resort boundaries during risky post storm avalanche warnings. Munchkins, Field of Dreams, Condo Run, Subdivision Bowl, Outer Outer and uncontrolled areas beyond Grouse Rock are all easy targets for unsuspecting powder seekers. Even inbounds, patrol absolutely does the best they can do, but we must know the signs of potential danger if we’re going to be skiing hazardous terrain, in particular during a big storm cycle.

The easiest thing you can do is to pay attention as you arrive at the resort during or the day after a storm cycle. If you’re seeing numerous slides along Alpine Meadows Road, or noticing that control work produced slides in Pete’s Peril, the Sisters, High Yellow or Lower Saddle or other visible areas – it’s a sign that there is instability out there.  Consider taking fewer risks on those days. Certainly stay out of closed terrain!

The Alpine Avalanche Rescue Dogs

The fact that a rescue dog was able to locate Anna Conrad alive was huge. Fortunately, Anna had an airspace that was created by the lockers and building debris that surrounded her. Typically, people that are buried in an avalanche have a pretty low survival rate after 30 minutes. There’s a lot of different factors that affect that. Typically, in 1982, rescue dogs were trained more generally for search and rescue purposes. That meant that the closest rescue dog was often more than 30 minutes away. Their mission in an avalanche scenario was more of recovery and not rescue. Anna Conrad was the first live victim located by a dog in the United States. The conventional thought is that dog noses are about 10,000 to 100,000 times more sensitive than human noses.

The team of rescue dogs that work with patrollers at Alpine Meadows are now onsite. While the numbers can vary, several are on the mountain each day. While not romping the mountain or training with their patroller, they may be found in their kennel area in the Summit building at the top of the mountain. In the case of an avalanche or missing skier or rider, they are right on site and ready to respond. That is super cool. The Alpine Avalanche Rescue Foundation (AARF) is the support organization for the Alpine Meadows dogs.

 

 

The Legacy Of Alpine Meadows

The avalanche of 1982 is a huge part of the legacy of Alpine Meadows. There is a huge get together of former employees at Alpine Meadows today to remember those that were lost, and to appreciate the efforts each have made towards making this place magical over the years. Alpine Meadows is not just a piece of real estate and a collection of buildings and equipment. It’s a place that many of us call our “happy place”. Whether we are here every day, or just once a season, this place becomes a part of who we are. Collectively we are Alpine Meadows.

Let’s keep Alpine Meadows as Alpine Meadows.

Special thanks to all of my friends for your assistance in putting this piece together.