A Soldotna teenager was killed in an avalanche while snowmachining in Turnagain Pass on Saturday.
According to a dispatch by Alaska State Troopers, they were told at around 2:30 p.m. of a fatal avalanche in the pass. A group of snowmachiners was riding on the backside of Seattle Ridge, between the Kenai Peninsula Welcome Sign and Bertha Creek Campground, “witnesses stated,” when an avalanche was triggered.
The body of 16-year-old Tucker Challans was recovered by the Alaska Mountain Rescue Group the next morning.
A report from the Chugach National Forest Avalanche Information Center says that Challans had been buried 10 feet deep in an avalanche “approximately 500 feet wide.” The center says a layer of “surface hoar” buried around 2-feet deep is easily disturbed by people and can cause avalanches from below, above or from the side of the avalanche area. That’s what happened Saturday, the center said.
In recent weeks, the center has reported several avalanches triggered in that area by snowmachines and snowboarders. The avalanche danger is currently reported at “Considerable” both in the treeline and alpine altitudes, and a forecast reads that “the Turnagain Pass snowpack is dangerous and unstable despite calm weather.”
That weak layer of snow, between 2-3 feet deep, exists in much of the area. The forecast recommends avoiding travel on or below steep slopes.
“Unfortunately, we continue to see people triggering really big avalanches on that layer,” Andrew Schauer, lead avalanche specialist, said in a video of the site on Sunday. “The conditions are going to continue to be dangerous for the foreseeable future.”
Challans was a Soldotna High School hockey player, and the team on Facebook called for sticks to be left outside for his family and friends, a hockey tradition to show respect for the loss of a player.
Reach reporter Jake Dye at jacob.dye@peninsulaclarion.com.
