I don't know about the rest of you, but usually when I first hear of a new avy fatality my immediate assumption is that some poor uneducated, uninitiated soul ventured into and area they didn't understand and too bad they were not as knowledgeable and careful as me.
Then, as I look into the incident further, as often as not I discover that the "poor inexperienced souls" were, in fact, probably smarter, better educated (with regard to snow science) and more experienced than I. It is somewhat humbling to discover that someone who just lost their life was probably a lot smarter and more experienced than you, yet died doing what you think you know so much about.
In addition to what Scotty added above, I read that Kyle (the fatality victim) was a patroller.
Heartfelt condolences to his friends and loved ones.
Please be careful out there folks. Yeah, this young man died in a continental snowpack, which is usually more dangerous than our maritime snowpack.
But as JimG points out, we can all miss important signs and make mistakes, regardless of our environment.
We will have avalanches in the PNW this winter; we can count on that.
Let’s all do our part and not be on those slopes when they go.
