A California man has died on Friday after being caught in an avalanche while heli-skiing in Alaska’s remote Chugach Mountains, marking another tragic incident during a period of elevated spring avalanche risk.
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According to the Alaska State Troopers, 63-year-old Eric Sommer was caught in an avalanche at approximately 2:00 p.m. on March 27 while skiing near Lake George, northeast of Anchorage. The incident occurred deep in the Chugach Mountains, an area renowned for its steep terrain and world-class heli-skiing.
Guides were able to locate and extricate Sommer from the avalanche debris before transporting him by helicopter to an Anchorage-area hospital. Despite those efforts, he was later pronounced dead. Alaska State Troopers confirmed that next of kin have been notified.
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A preliminary report from the National Avalanche Center similarly stated that the incident involved a guided heli-skiing client and that members of the party successfully recovered him from the slide before evacuation. A detailed report will be released soon and should give more details on the exact circumstances.
A State Trooper official told the Anchorage Daily News that the avalanche occurred roughly one mile east of Lake George, near the massive Knik Glacier. The heli-ski operation involved was identified as Silverton Mountain Guides, a Girdwood-based company that has operated in the region since 2008. Very few additional details are known at this stage, such as the size of the avalanche, the number of participants in the ski group, or whether others were caught or injured…