Girdwood is a tourist community that caters to winter events, with downhill skiing and snowboarding at the Alyeska Resort in a spectacularly scenic location. After a gondola ride 3,200 feet (975 meters) up Mount Alyeska, diners can view seven glaciers from the restaurant named for that view.

It appears to be the first fatal avalanche this winter in Alaska and the country's deadliest since an avalanche in Washington's Cascade Mountains killed three climbers in 2023.

The Chugach National Forest Avalanche Information Center also issued a special bulletin warning of dangerous avalanche conditions in the mountains across a wide swath of Southcentral Alaska.