Snowboarder, 16, is killed at Alpental
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A 16-year-old scholar-athlete was killed yesterday when he fell over a 30-foot cliff while snowboarding in an out-of-bounds area of Alpental at Snoqualmie Pass.
The teen, a Skyline High School football player, was identified as Joshua Williams of Sammamish.
“Josh caught an edge and fell over the cliff,” said the boy’s mother, Debbie Williams.
Last night, more than 50 students from Skyline High, including members of the football and baseball teams, gathered for a prayer session at a local pastor’s house.
Meanwhile, a spokesman for the ski area wondered why the teen and his friends were snowboarding where they were.
“What I’ve been asking myself all afternoon is ‘Why were they skiing out of bounds?’” said Guy Lawrence, marketing director for The Summit ski area, which includes the Alpental and Snoqualmie ski areas.
The accident occurred around 3 p.m., Lawrence said. Williams landed head-first in the snow. He was wearing a helmet when the accident occurred, his mother said.
“His friends unburied him, but he was unresponsive. One boy alerted the ski patrol and they were there by 3:28 p.m.,” Lawrence said. Williams and several friends had spent Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a school holiday, snowboarding at Snoqualmie Pass.
Snowboarding was one of Joshua Williams’ many passions.
Although Williams, known to friends as Josh, was just a sophomore, he had earned a starting position as an outside linebacker on the high-school varsity team.
He also golfed, wakeboarded during the summer and played third base and catcher in baseball. His team, Food Giant of Issaquah, finished third in a national baseball tournament last summer.
The 5-foot-10-inch Williams was on the honor roll at the same time he was earning a letter in football.
“Josh was loved by his teammates and classmates,” said Steve Gervais, Skyline football coach. “He was gifted athletically and just a great young kid.”
Debbie Williams said the family, including her husband, Phil, and daughters Elizabeth, 13, and Anna, 11, were stunned. Williams’ death was the not the only snowboarding fatality in recent years. Three snowboarders were killed at the Mount Baker ski area in 1999 when they went into an out-of-bounds area.
Another snowboarder was killed the same year in a fall from a 200-foot cliff at Alpental, also in an out-of-bounds area.