Avalanche in Alaska, March 18, 2001

Name: Avalanche in Alaska, March 18, 2001
Start: 2001-03-18T15:00
End: 2001-03-18T16:00
Location: Alaska

March 18, 2001 · NWS AFC · 1 event in 1 county or zone

1 avalanche, as filed by the National Weather Service.

The toll

Deaths: 1
Injuries: 1
Property damage: None recorded
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, Copper River Basin

When: March 18, 3:00 PM AST to 4:00 PM AST
Where: Copper River Basin forecast zone
Deaths: 1 direct, 0 indirect
Injuries: 1 direct, 0 indirect
Reported by: NEWSPAPER

Another avalanche death, 6 miles east of the Richardson Monument at Mile 198 of the Richardson Highway (about 70 miles south of Delta Junction), was reported in Monday's Anchorage Daily News. The avalanche occurred about 3 pm Sunday, March 18, 2001.A group of snowmachiners were out for the day and stopped behind Courage Mountain. When the avalanche let go, snow machiners in the area tried to get out of the way. Gary Frederick, 37, of Delta Junction and Bambi Bender, 25, of North Pole, were caught in the slide. About 20 people began probing the area immediately after the avalanche and Bender was quickly pulled out uninjured. Frederick was found about 15 minutes later, buried in about 15 feet of hard-packed snow. It took about 45 minutes to dig him out. Attempts to revive him were unsuccessful.

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, Copper River Basin	2001-03-18	37	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 2001 Every state in 2001 This day in weather history Warnings in Alaska, March 2001

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: 5230458.