Three skiers dead in Washington avalanche
BY AP Wire Service
Monday, February 20, 2012
2/20/12 at 5:18 AM
STEVENS PASS, Wash. (AP) - Three skiers were killed Sunday when an avalanche swept them down an out-of-bounds canyon at a popular resort, but a fourth skier caught up in the slide was saved by a safety device, authorities said.
The four were among three groups of skiers - about a dozen people in all - making their way through a foot and a half of fresh snow on the back side of Stevens Pass, in the Cascade Mountains northeast of Seattle, when the avalanche hit.
All were buried to some extent, but the men who died were swept about 1,500 feet down a chute in the Tunnel Creek Canyon area, King County Sheriff's Sgt. Katie Larson said.
Most of the other skiers, all well-equipped, were able to free themselves and rushed to dig out the victims. They performed CPR on the three men to no avail, Larson said.
The fourth skier who was swept down the mountain, a woman, appeared to avoid a similar fate because of the avalanche safety device she was wearing, Larson said. Larson didn't immediately have other details about the device.
The men who died were believed to be in their 30s and 40s.
"From what I'm told, they were all very knowledgeable, expert skiers," Larson said.
The initial reports of the avalanche reached the sheriff's office just after noon, and for some time it wasn't clear whether the other skiers had also been swept up in the slide.
The Northwest Weather and Avalanche Center on Sunday issued a warning for high avalanche danger for areas above 5,000 feet, saying warmer weather could loosen surface snow and trigger a slide on steeper slopes. The elevation of the avalanche wasn't immediately clear.
John Gifford, the ski area's general manager, said Sunday that the resort had received 19 inches of snow in the past 24 hours.
Across the West, there had been 13 avalanche deaths this season as of Thursday, according to the Colorado Avalanche Information Center, which tracks avalanche deaths in the U.S.
Experts have said the risk of additional slides could remain high all season. They attribute the dangers in part to a weak base layer of snow caused by a dry winter.
Original Print Headline: Three skiers dead in avalanche
