Buried: The 1982 Alpine Meadows Avalanche

Maybe a bit long? My big issue was the overly loud music in the first 15 minutes, I understand they were trying to describe that many of the employees were ex-hippies but I keep thinking/hoping they would turn it down during the conversation, they don't! Really annoying. I do like the style of no third party "interviewing" just letting the people talk and tell their story. 3-4 of the main characters are not very likeable. That's always a problem when the story line is built to to provide a "sympathetic avenue" and it doesn't work. Overall, a good doc. I'm sure skiers will get more out of it than non-skiers.

It's kind of wired felling that watching this documentary when I am working for this resort. And the day I watched this is also the day they close the both resort due to high risk of avalanche. So I stay at home and review this said history. It's not as said as I thought, but it remind me should respect our mother nature more next time when I go to Alpine. Ski or working... The whole documantary has many many interview with the person who experience this accident and many valuable materials. It really helps me understand more about avalanche control and many other knowledge about snow and mountains.

This documentary tells the story of the 1982 Alpine Meadows avalanche and the rescue effort that followed. The series of storms that led up to the event and continued to dump snow after the avalanche was epic. Most day skiers are not aware of the danger and the huge effort ski area employees make to lessen the danger. Ski patrollers go out in insane conditions with explosives that they toss to trigger the snow packed slopes and produce slides.

The film has won multiple awards on the festival circuit including best documentary at Bend and Austin film festivals. Directors Drake and Siig have done a great job sharing this story.

I wish documentarians wouldn't use music underneath entire films. I was looking forward to watching this movie and learning about what took place, but I couldn't get through it because the music played the entire time and took away from the dialogue and content. At times the music was almost as loud as the person being interviewed. I've noticed this happening a lot with more recent documentaries. You want people to watch a film, not become distracted by it. I was a freshman in high school when the avalanche took place and remember hearing about it. The film is highly rated, but I couldn't get through it. Hopefully, I'll find another documentary on the same subject without the overbearing music.

As someone who isn't a skier, but is active in outdoor recreation (I'd rather snowshoe), and lives in the mountains of Colorado, I was keenly interested in this movie when I saw the description. I was hoping for something great, and it is indeed great.

Told from the perspective of the people involved, and with no third person narration, this story unfolds with the events leading up to, and after, the avalanche.

You get an idea of what the people were like at the time, how much they've grown since then, and how much this affected them. They are at times very emotional, but always with a sense of honesty. They were mostly people (around my age, as far as I can tell) who were having a good time being ski bums, when tragedy struck. How they dealt with the tragedy is the main thrust of the story, and it is told with brutal forthrightness.

Even if skiing or winter recreation isn't your thing, this is still a movie to watch.