Avalanche in Alaska, December 9, 2000

Name: Avalanche in Alaska, December 9, 2000
Start: 2000-12-09T13:30
End: 2000-12-09T14:00
Location: Alaska

December 9, 2000 · NWS AFC · 1 event in 1 county or zone

1 avalanche, as filed by the National Weather Service.

The toll

Deaths: 1
Injuries: 0
Property damage: $2,000
Crop damage: None recorded
Events: 1

Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.

Event by event

1 avalanche. Local standard time, as filed.

Avalanche, Susitna Valley

When: December 9, 1:30 PM AST to 2:00 PM AST
Where: Susitna Valley forecast zone
Deaths: 1 direct, 0 indirect
Property damage: $2,000
Reported by: FIRE DEPT/RESCUE SQUAD

Avalanche fatality occurred Saturday, 9 December 2000 between 1:30 pm and 2:00 pm. The put-in was in an area north of Dunkle Mine, around milepost 196 on the Parks Highway. The accident site was about 16 miles in from the road, just inside the park boundary.The victim (James Thompson, 44) went to help a stuck snowmachiner who had been "highmarking" on a hill which tapered into a ravine. The stuck snowmachiner got himself unstuck and rode downhill. The victim was just heading downslope when he was hit from behind (witnesses said he probably didn't even see the slide coming and thus, didn't accelerate to try to ride it out).The width of the slide was estimated between 1/4 and 1/2 miles wide. The victim was carried roughly 400 yards.Two or three people witnessed Thompson getting caught, others in the area saw the slide, but not the victim being carried downslope. A team of 5-6 searchers found the sled and began probing upslope. Within about 15 minutes, they struck the victim. he was buried face down, about 4 feet deep, roughly 20 feet upslope from his snowmachine. He did not have a pulse. CPR was begun while the victim was still in the hole, and continued for 40 - 60 minutes without result.

The people who died

As the offices recorded each death: direct deaths were caused by the weather itself, indirect ones by something it set in motion.

Event	Date	Age	Sex	Where	Kind
Avalanche, Susitna Valley	2000-12-09	44	Male	Outside/Open Areas	Direct

What these are

Avalanche: A mass of snow sliding down a mountainside that caused a death, an injury or damage.

After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.

The same day elsewhere

Every storm in Alaska in 2000 Every state in 2000 This day in weather history Warnings in Alaska, December 2000

Sources

NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-09-24. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 5161158.