The 2012 Tunnel Creek avalanche occurred in the
northwest
The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A '' compass rose'' is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west— ...
United States
The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
on February 19, 2012. It happened at about noon
PST in the Tunnel Creek section of
Stevens Pass, a
mountain pass
A mountain pass is a navigable route through a mountain range or over a ridge. Since mountain ranges can present formidable barriers to travel, passes have played a key role in trade, war, and both Human migration, human and animal migration t ...
through the
Cascade Mountains of
Washington, at the border of
King
King is a royal title given to a male monarch. A king is an Absolute monarchy, absolute monarch if he holds unrestricted Government, governmental power or exercises full sovereignty over a nation. Conversely, he is a Constitutional monarchy, ...
and
Chelan counties.
There were three fatalities and one injured.
The
avalanche
An avalanche is a rapid flow of snow down a Grade (slope), slope, such as a hill or mountain. Avalanches can be triggered spontaneously, by factors such as increased precipitation or snowpack weakening, or by external means such as humans, othe ...
was characterized as a slab avalanche, or across and deep.
Three days before the avalanche occurred, a large snow storm dumped into Stevens Pass, which resulted in the unstable snow pack that was disrupted by skiers on their excursion.
Avalanche
The avalanche was triggered when sixteen of the nation's top
free skiers and free snowboarders were making a run together. They had been gathered by Chris Rudolph, a charismatic marketing director at the
attached ski area.
[ One or more of the skiers triggered the avalanche below the top of the mountain. Starting at an ]elevation
The elevation of a geographic location (geography), ''location'' is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational equipotenti ...
of and a slope of 42 degrees,[ The remaining three skiers, Jim Jack, Chris Rudolph and John Brenan, were killed through a combination of blunt force trauma and asphyxia.]
Media coverage
The avalanche attracted a high level of media attention because of the experience and notoriety of all sixteen skiers and snowboarders on the trip. Participants included professional competitive skiers and members of the freeskiing media, including reporters and a photographer from ''Powder Magazine''.The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'' published an interactive multimedia feature piece called " Snow Fall"2013
2013 was the first year since 1987 to contain four unique digits (a span of 26 years).
2013 was designated as:
*International Year of Water Cooperation
*International Year of Quinoa
Events
January
* January 5 – 2013 Craig, Alask ...
Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tunnel Creek avalanche
Tunnel Creek avalanche
Tunn
2012 in Washington (state)
February 2012 in the United States
Natural disasters in Washington (state)
Avalanches in North America