Avalanches Kill 3 at Stevens Pass, 1 at Alpental

Very sad. My condolences to the families.

FWIW, on a Kendall Stump tour yesterday we were getting shooting cracks in the new snow layer (12-24"). Got a 15' soft slab failure between switchbacks. That was in open areas of glades <4500'. The new snow seemed to be easily triggered on slopes above ~35deg, but not below. There was also a grapel layer in the new snow that was reactive (about 4-6" down at 3pm).
Be safe.

My condolences go out to the friends and families of the victims and heartfelt support to the patrollers and other law enforcement and emergency personnel tasked with this grim job of recovery.

Hope no one from here was involved.

"All of the skiers in the three groups were said to be experienced, and all had appropriate gear."

This makes me cringe, thinking about which one of my friends it could be.    Even someone unknown to me, I am sorry to see their lives lost.   From what I have read, a skier up and above the three, triggered a small avalanche.   It propagated and grew, running 3000+ feet.   It is my understanding that the skier who caused the avalanche was not one of the fatal victims.   

The accident occurred on the backside side-country running down to Tunnel Creek U-turn.   



More information here: www.powdermag.com/stevens_pass-news/thre...vens-pass-avalanche/

wow, my condolances to those who lost someone today. I headed up to stevens this morning to ski the lifts with my boys, and we were turned back due to no parking at all; completely full.

Sad...

*removed names of potential victims -- nothing has been released to the public that I know of*

Delete your post, inappropriate in the utmost.