Avalanche kills person near Mount Baker ski area

NWAC made a preliminary report in tonight's (for 1/27) avalanche forecast:

Two experienced skiers were hit by natural avalanches on the north side of Mt. Herman in the early afternoon on Sunday, January 24th 2016. One skier sustained a non-avalanche related injury. A call was placed to 911, initiating rescue. Both skiers continued descending the north side of Mt. Herman. A small, likely loose snow avalanche originating from steeper terrain above, caught and carried both skiers—no burials. The party then continued down-slope under their own power. A short time later, the party was struck by a secondary avalanche originating from a steep, isolated terrain feature above the party. After initial observations, the secondary slide appears to be a glide avalanche and not triggered by the party. The persistent slab problem is no longer suspected as a cause of this incident. Both skiers were caught, carried, and partially buried—one was injured and air lifted Sunday. The second skier sustained fatal traumatic injuries. His body was recovered on Monday, January 25th 2016. NWAC will be releasing the full incident report as soon as it is available.

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How horrific for all involved. Very sad.

Ryan. My theory, based on limited knowledge.

There is a moderate way down, behind widowmaker,(in the foreground), and stone man in the back from a peaklet just south of Herman propper. It drops to Bagley creek, but involves a couple skier right traverses. Perhaps this was their route. Not sure how exposed, or not, you can keep yourself.? 

Out of respect to the victims, NWAC is not responsible for individual choices just providing a general forecast(Valley scale not slope scale). It is important to focus on the decision making that led them there so we can better understand how this happened.

Condolences to the family.

Quote from NWAC:

Two experienced skiers were hit by natural avalanches on the north side of Mt. Herman in the early afternoon on Sunday, January 24th 2016. One skier sustained a non-avalanche related injury. A call was placed to 911, initiating rescue. Both skiers continued descending the north side of Mt. Herman. A small, likely loose snow avalanche originating from steeper terrain above, caught and carried both skiers—no burials. The party then continued down-slope under their own power. A short time later, the party was struck by a secondary avalanche originating from a steep, isolated terrain feature above the party. After initial observations, the secondary slide appears to be a glide avalanche and not triggered by the party. The persistent slab problem is no longer suspected as a cause of this incident. Both skiers were caught, carried, and partially buried—one was injured and air lifted Sunday. The second skier sustained fatal traumatic injuries. His body was recovered on Monday, January 25th 2016. NWAC will be releasing the full incident report as soon as it is available.

The thing that hits me about this accident is that it was precipitated by a non-avalanche related injury. The party placed a call to 911 due to that injury and they were making their way as best they could back to safety. The avalanche occurred during that effort.

When you're hurting and already in an emergency, it's easy to imagine just trying to get home as quickly as you can. Taking the shortest and most direct route maybe. But that might not be the safest way to go. That seems to have been the case here.

In aviation, they talk about breaking the chain of events that leads to an accident. We haven't talked about that much in the context of avalanche safety, but this tragedy has me thinking maybe we should. A guick google search turns up lots of references related to the accident chain of events:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chain_of_events_%28aeronautics%29
www.aopa.org/asf/publications/inst_reports2.cfm?article=4401
www1.northbrook28.net/~wconcklin/6th_eBo...Accident%20Chain.pdf
www.amazon.com/Serious-Accidents-Factors...cident/dp/1563477459

From the limited description of the injury available, a hasty retreat may have been the right, even if apparently risky, move. We'll have to wait for a comprehensive report, if one emerges.

Hope everyone involved is healing; internet analysis will wait.

To be clear, I'm not casting any sort of judgement. I'm imagining myself doing the exact same thing.