2 Lost Near Mt. Baker -- Snowboarder Dies In Avalanche

A monstrous slide rumbled down the side of Mount Shuksan just outside the boundary of the Mount Baker Ski Area yesterday afternoon, sweeping one snowboarder to his death and leaving another missing.

Whatcom County Sheriff Dale Brandland said late last night that rescuers would not return to the area to search for the missing snowboarder.

"It's just too dangerous," he said. "There are other avalanches just poised to let go. We have to think of the safety of our people."

The slide broke loose about 12:30 p.m. on a steep slope just outside the ski area's boundaries. It was massive - so large that two skiers said they were knocked over by the "sheer velocity of the wind" as it roared by, Brandland said.

"I stood at the bottom of it, and I was a mile away from where it started," he said. "And I was standing in 10 feet of snow."

"I am in awe of what I saw," said witness Eliot Behre, 36, of Bothell, who was on a traverse across a shallow canyon when the slide tore loose.

"There was this giant roar, the ground shaking and what have you," he said. "It was stunning."

Behre said he watched as a snowboarder on a trail below the slide, outside the boundary of the ski area, apparently tried to outrun the tons of cascading snow. He estimated the slide was 500 yards across or more.

"The guy I saw taking a run for it, he just disappeared out of sight," Behre said.

Searchers recovered one body and were searching for another late into the evening. Behre said it took the rescuers "at least an hour" to find and recover the man's body.

He also said several other skiers and snowboarders were caught up in the avalanche but were able to extricate themselves.

Body of snowboarder removed

The body of the snowboarder was flown off the mountain at 2:45 p.m., according to Terry Carter, a nursing supervisor at St. Joseph Hospital in Bellingham. It was not known what time he was pulled from the snow.

Carter said the man, identified only as a 19-year-old from Tacoma, was pronounced dead at the scene despite resuscitation efforts. His body was flown directly to the Whatcom County Medical Examiner's Office.

Slide near Rumble Gulch

Behre said the slide came down just above an area known as Rumble Gulch adjacent to the top of Lift 8 on 9,129-foot Mount Shuksan, which dominates the 1,000-acre ski resort 56 miles east of Bellingham.

It has been a particularly dangerous winter in Washington's backcountry this year. Yesterday's avalanche was just one in a series of tragedies and near tragedies to befall skiers, snowmobilers and hikers. At least four people have died in the past two months on Western Washington slopes.

Yesterday's snowslide was the second deadly incident at Mount Baker in less than a month. On Jan. 18, a 25-year-old snowboarder went beneath the boundary ropes into Rumble Gulch and has not been seen since. He is presumed dead.

Deadly accidents this year

In December, a 23-year-old Pacific man was killed snowboarding at Crystal Mountain. A 41-year-old telemark skier also died at Crystal in early December.

Last week two snowshoers missing for four days near Snoqualmie Pass stumbled out of the wilderness cold but safe after searchers had all but given up hope for them.

And earlier this month, a group of snowmobilers stumbled across a Kelso man who, along with his wife and two dogs, had been lost for 12 days when his snowmobile bogged in deep snow near Leavenworth, Chelan County. The man and dogs survived. His wife died.