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—each sep ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

on February 19, 2012. It happened at about noon PST in the Tunnel Creek section of

Stevens Pass Stevens Pass (elevation ) is a mountain pass through the Cascade Range, Cascade Mountains located at the border of King County, Washington, King County and Chelan County, Washington, Chelan County in Washington (state), Washington, United States. ...

, a

mountain pass A mountain pass is a navigable route through a mountain range or over a ridge. Since many of the world's mountain ranges have presented formidable barriers to travel, passes have played a key role in trade, war, and both Human migration, human a ...

through the

Cascade Mountains The Cascade Range or Cascades is a major mountain range of western North America, extending from southern British Columbia through Washington and Oregon to Northern California. It includes both non-volcanic mountains, such as the North Cascades, ...

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered on ...

, at the border of

King King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen, which title is also given to the consort of a king. *In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the tit ...

and Chelan counties. There were three fatalities and one injured. The

avalanche An avalanche is a rapid flow of snow down a slope, such as a hill or mountain. Avalanches can be set off spontaneously, by such factors as increased precipitation or snowpack weakening, or by external means such as humans, animals, and earth ...

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 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 surface (see Geodetic datum § Vert ...

of and a slope of 42 degrees, it rushed down a vertical drop of , carrying away five skiers. One of the skiers wedged himself between two trees and avoided being swept away as the avalanche rushed over him. Another skier,

Elyse Saugstad Elyse Saugstad is an American professional free skier. She was the 2008 Freeride World Champion. Saugstad gained additional notoriety after surviving the 2012 Tunnel Creek avalanche. She credits her survival to her use of an avalanche airbag t ...

, deployed an avalanche survival airbag and suffered minor injuries, despite being trapped until her fellow skiers rescued her. The remaining three skiers, Jim Jack, Chris Rudolph and John Brenan, were killed through a combination of

blunt force trauma Blunt trauma, also known as blunt force trauma or non-penetrating trauma, is physical traumas, and particularly in the elderly who fall. It is contrasted with penetrating trauma which occurs when an object pierces the skin and enters a tissue ...

and

asphyxia Asphyxia or asphyxiation is a condition of deficient supply of oxygen to the body which arises from abnormal breathing. Asphyxia causes generalized hypoxia, which affects primarily the tissues and organs. There are many circumstances that can i ...

. The

Wellington avalanche Wellington (later known as Tye) was a small unincorporated railroad community in the northwest United States, on the Great Northern Railway in northeastern King County, Washington. Founded in 1893, it was located in the Cascade Range at the we ...

of 1910, the deadliest in U.S. history with 96 fatalities, occurred in the vicinity 102 years earlier. It happened about a mile (1.6 km) to the northwest, along the Great Northern Railway, in the early hours of March 1.

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 Freeskiing, or new school skiing, is a specific type of alpine skiing, which involves tricks, jumps, and terrain park features, such as rails, boxes, jibs, or other obstacles. This form of skiing resulted from the growth of snowboarding combi ...

media, including reporters and a photographer from ''Powder Magazine''. In December 2012, ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' published an interactive multimedia feature piece called "

Snow Fall Snow comprises individual ice crystals that grow while suspended in the atmosphere—usually within clouds—and then fall, accumulating on the ground where they undergo further changes. It consists of frozen crystalline water throughout ...

" that was critically acclaimed, including winning the

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fact ...

Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing The Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing is one of the fourteen American Pulitzer Prizes that are annually awarded for Journalism. It has been awarded since 1979 for a distinguished example of feature writing giving prime consideration to high liter ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tunnel Creek avalanche 2012 natural disasters Tunn 2012 in Washington (state) February 2012 events in the United States Natural disasters in Washington (state) Avalanches in the United States