One of the most terrifying stories in the history of Lake Tahoe skiing will most likely hit the big screen in 2026.
Acclaimed movie director Martin Scorsese is scheduled to produce a film that plans to revisit the story of the infamous 1982 Alpine Meadows ski resort avalanche incident.
The film – Wall of White – will reportedly to be a narrative adaption of Steven Siig and Jared Drake’s documentary (Buried), which also chronicled the famed Alpine Meadows avalanche.
Today, Alpine Meadows is part of Palisades Tahoe. In 2021, Squaw Valley and neighboring Alpine Meadows changed its name to Palisades Tahoe.
In March 1982, while Alpine Meadows was closed due to a huge snowstorm, an enormous avalanche cascaded down the slopes and tremendously impacted the base area, destroying the resort’s main lodge building, and killing seven people after numerous feet of snow fell in four days.
The Scorsese film will center on Anna Conrad (now Anna Allen), who miraculously became the lone survivor of the avalanche, and the rescuers who scrambled to save the people buried in the Alpine Meadows’ base area.
After a five-day search, Conrad was found alive in the Summit building, but suffered hypothermia, frostbite, and eventually lost part of her right leg and left foot. Age 22 at the time, Conrad was discovered in an air pocket beneath several feet of snow and debris in the A-frame building.
AVALANCHE LOOK BACK: For more details on the historic avalanche, visit the 2020 Tahoe Ski World story – Look back: Alpine Meadows 1982 avalanche.
It was snowing extremely hard for four straight days and the resort was closed in the spring of 1982. However, there were still some people who had to report to work.
On March 31, the avalanche hit the Summit Chairlift Terminal building, several small buildings, and two chairlifts. The avalanche buried the parking lot under 10 to 20 feet of snow.
Of the seven people in the Summit Building at the time of the avalanche, three were killed. Four people were buried in the parking lot and were also killed. Altogether, 12 people and one dog were victims of the avalanche. The total monetary loss was approximately 1.6 million dollars.
A TRUE SURVIVOR: Following her rescue, Conrad spent two months in a hospital. A portion of her right leg and the toes on her left foot were irreparably damaged by frostbite.
She was in a building when a wave of snow slammed into the lodge. The building was crushed, but the debris helped create an air pocket that saved Conrad’s life.
Others weren’t so fortunate. Conrad’s boyfriend and three of her colleagues at Alpine Meadows lost their lives in the avalanche.
“I had absolutely no idea what had happened, it was so instantaneous,” Conrad recalled years later. “I did a lot of sleeping and thinking about friends. I just kept telling myself I could do it, I could do it. They’d find me.”
Conrad survived by fighting through frostbite and severe dehydration during the five days she was buried. That she lived was miraculous.
A Canadian study reports that people buried in an avalanche are unlikely to survive if not rescued within 20 minutes, because of the dangers posed by trauma and suffocation.
The heroic Conrad not only began skiing again, she is still teaching safety at Mammoth Mountain ski resort.
Conrad said she sought to live a meaningful life in the years after the Alpine Meadows avalanche. She married and raised two children, who have graduated from college.
She continues to work in the ski industry and remains a skilled and passionate skier, despite having to do it with a prosthetic limb that she straps on to replace the lower leg she lost in the avalanche.
“That was one of my goals, not to let the avalanche beat me,” Conrad said.
SCORSESE ROLE: While Scorsese isn’t scheduled to sit in the director’s seat for Wall of White, his involvement in the project presents a unique crossover between the worlds of skiing and Hollywood.
Scorsese will be joined by Siig, Drake, and Randall Emmett. Mark Gogolewski will be the executive producer. The project has a start date scheduled for late 2025.
“Jared and Steven crafted an extraordinary documentary,” Emmett said, referencing the source material for Wall of White. “That film vividly captured this unbelievable tragedy and had a powerful impact on me.”
Scorsese is a legendary filmmaker, having directed cinema touchstones like Taxi Driver, Goodfellas, and The Irishman. His 2023 film – Killers of the Flower Moon – received 10 Oscar nominations.
