1982 Alpine Meadows avalanche documentary filmmaker on Palisades tragedy: "It's a sad day"
Tahoe is no stranger to deadly avalanches. In March of 1982, tons of snow came crashing down the mountain at Alpine Meadows. Seven people lost their lives.
Perhaps no one knows the dangers of the avalanches better than documentary filmmaker Steve Siig. He produced the 2022 Netflix documentary series "Buried: The 1982 Alpine Meadows Avalanche." He also lives not far from where Wednesday morning's deadly avalanche at Palisades Tahoe happened.
"I'm on the Alpine meadow side of Palisades Tahoe. So this happened on the Olympic Valley side," Siig explained. "But about 9:30, you know, my messages started flying into my phone."
Siig says although resorts now have plans to deal with avalanches, the danger cannot be ignored.
"Avalanches are very unpredictable. They're hard to understand. There's science associated with it. But when it comes to avalanche professionals, there's an art form to it as well," Siig said.
Siig's Netflix series tells the stories of the ski patrol and avalanche teams that were on duty and responded to the 1982 disaster and how Tahoe residents responded to the tragedy.
"The community came together in it, that's the big thing," said Siig. "It was also a pioneering time of avalanche awareness and the protocols that they do and the systems that they put in place. It is not that there weren't avalanches before 1982. But it was really when the science started coming in into the purview of of living and playing in the mountains."
"There's science associated with it. But when it comes to avalanche professionals, there's an art form to it as well,". And there are dark, dark sides to to avalanches, as we know from the 1982 avalanche, where we lost seven people, and that was in bounds This SKI AREA was not open at the time.
As winter sports draw more and more people to mountains, Siig says skiers and snowboarders need to understand the risks.
"They feel that you are safe just because you're in a ski area, and ski patrol work tirelessly to, you know, try and make the the mountain as safe as possible. But the mountain is never safe," said Siig. "I think people have this false sense of security when they're at a ski area, but we also see these accidents in the backcountry too."
However, he also knows that the area around Palisades and Alpine Meadow will band together amid the tragedy of Wednesday's avalanche.
"It's a sad day for the community. But our community always faces adversity very well. And we'll all come together," he said. "And as the dust settles, we'll know more facts of what happened. But it's very sad and tragic."
