TRAPPED

Snowmobiling Teen Dies After Triggering Alaskan Avalanche

His body was found buried 10 feet beneath the snow.

A 16-year-old boy was killed after triggering an avalanche in Alaska. The body of Tucker Challan was found buried 10 feet beneath the snow in Turnagain Pass after a group was riding on the mountain with snowmobiles the day prior. Witnesses at the popular recreational area said Challan triggered the avalanche, causing his burial and ultimate death—making him the fourth person this month to be killed by Alaskan snow slides. At the time of his death, staff members were holding a day for avalanche awareness in the parking lot. Officials blamed the trigger on a weak layer of snow, with new snow on top of it. “All you have to do is break that weak layer, and then that weak layer shoots out like dominoes and breaks into the slopes,” Chugach National Forest Avalanche Center director Wendy Wagner said. “They were on the edge of the slope and ended up being caught.”