circa July 1982. Courtesy Mark McLaughlin
It’s been nearly four decades since one of the deadliest avalanches in Sierra Nevada history broke loose at Alpine Meadows Ski Resort and killed seven people. For those of us who remember this tragic event on March 31, 1982, and the days of grief and hope that followed, it represents a benchmark in time. For anyone who skis or snowboards today, whether backcountry or controlled resort, it serves as a reminder that the rugged mountains and dynamic weather we love so much are powerful forces of nature that deserve respect and understanding.
The blizzard conditions that precipitated the extreme avalanche conditions in late March 1982 were classic. Heavy storms in January as well as frequent storms during February and March had loaded and smoothed many of the avalanche paths of the northern Sierra, creating critical slide conditions. When one of the most powerful and persistent storms in history slammed the region on March 27, avalanche crews at Tahoe ski resorts kicked into high gear.
At Alpine Meadows, where the base snowpack before the storm measured 14 feet in the higher elevations, more than 80 inches of snow fell in four days. Winds in excess of 100 miles per hour hammered the upper mountain and drifted more snow on top of what fell from the skies. In a desperate attempt to maintain control of the loaded slopes above the resort, ski patrolmen used cases of dynamite at slide prone areas. Unable to reach the higher exposed ridges, avalanche control crews fired projectiles with a 75 mm recoilless rifle located at Gunner’s Knob, as well as from a mobile howitzer mounted on the back of a truck. Although the lower slopes controlled with hand charges appeared to be producing avalanches as expected, slide activity on the higher ridges being shelled with artillery were difficult to evaluate because of poor visibility. As a precaution, Alpine management shut down all its chair lift operations on Monday, March 29, and only opened three lower lifts the following day.
On March 31, conditions were so bad that Alpine shut down completely — only the lodge remained open. In the three-story, A-frame Summit Terminal building, Bernie Kingery, Alpine Meadows’ mountain manager for the previous 11 years, supervised all operations. A seasoned avalanche expert, Kingery had once said that would-be snow slides were “like a stack of marbles ready to go.”
Suddenly, at 3:45 p.m., a catastrophic slide broke free from the Poma Rocks, Buttress, and Don’s Nose terrain, a steep area 800 feet above with no known history of destructive slides. A deadly wall of snow, ice and debris 300 yards wide and about 14 feet high came crashing down on the resort snapping century-old trees and destroying the steel-girded Summit Terminal building. The powerful slide engulfied the 70,000-square-foot main lodge and swept through the parking lot. The Summit Terminal structure took a direct hit and Kingery was killed instantly. In the avalanche operations room with Kingery were employees Randy Buck, Tad DeFelice, Jeff Skover and Beth Morrow. Buck, DeFelice and Skover survived the blast, but Beth Morrow, a 22-year-old ski-lift operator from Sparks, Nevada, died in the wreckage.
Employee Anna Conrad and her boyfriend, Frank Yeatman, both 22, were changing clothes in the building’s second floor ski lift operator’s locker room when the walls suddenly collapsed, burying them in snow and debris. Yeatman was killed, but when the locker room wall failed, Conrad was knocked under a bench. The bench supported the wall and gave her a life saving cocoon of space.
After crashing into the lodge, the slide split beyond the building and poured into the resort’s parking lot, burying Dr. LeRoy “Bud” Nelson, a surgeon from Eureka, California, his 11-year-old daughter Laura, and David Hahn, a Bay area businessman. The trio was walking from their condominium to the main lodge in order to alleviate four days of cabin fever. The speeding snow also caught Jeffrey “Jake” Smith as he rode a snowmobile in the lower parking lot as he headed out to stop motorists from using the main road while avalanche control was being conducted.
Back at the condos, Dr. Nelson’s good friend, John Seffern, had intended to take the walk with them but later changed his mind. The day before, Bud and Jay had collected food lists from other families stranded in the condos and driven a Jeep to Tahoe City to buy supplies. When Seffern learned of the avalanche from neighbors, he quickly suited up and grabbed a shovel. “As we started out for the lodge, I noticed that it was snowing even harder,” Seffern recalled. The snow on the road was five to seven feet deep, which caused two young men accompanying him to turn back. But Seffern, a First Lieutenant in the Air Force and frequent skier at Alpine Meadows, soldiered on until he reached the lodge, or what was left of it.
Jay Seffern quickly joined one of the search lines, and spent the night probing the avalanche path looking for survivors, hoping against hope that young Laura would be found alive. Thirty years later, Seffern still questions why his friends died that day, and not him.
After the avalanche, search and rescue personnel spent days probing the snow and debris, looking for Anna Conrad’s body. Amazingly, five days after the disaster, they found her still alive, curled up in a space only 2 feet wide, 3 feet high and five feet long. Her rescue made national news and gave the community an uplifting sense that her recovery alive was a miracle. Anna Conrad survived, but lost her right leg below the knee and the toes on her left foot.
Despite her injuries, Anna Conrad was back on skis just ten months later. She moved to Mammoth Lakes, California, where she still lives with her husband, Brent Allen. The couple put two children through college and Anna still works at the ski resort as head of their Mountain Host program. She recently said, “I don’t believe in holding back because of something that has happened in my life. With the loss of my leg and toes things aren’t as easy to do, but it doesn’t stop me.”
The series of storms that caused the deadly avalanche were unprecedented in modern times. More than 14 feet of snow fell at Alpine Meadows in 12 days. At the Central Sierra Snow Lab near Donner Pass, 15.5 feet was recorded in the same time frame. Measurements at Desolation Wilderness, west of Lake Tahoe, revealed snowpack more than 20 feet deep, the greatest in 70 years.
Tahoe historian Mark McLaughlin is a nationally published author and professional speaker. His award-winning books are available at local stores or at www.thestormking.com . You can reach him at mark@thestormking.com
