Washington avalanche death record blamed on heavy snow, carelessness

SEATTLE — Of the 13 avalanche deaths nationally so far this winter, eight have been in Washington state, something experts blame on heavy snowfall due to the climate pattern La Nina, and on people not respecting the dangers of the backcountry.

Years of predictable weather have given people who ski, snowboard or snowmobile in Washington's mountains a dangerous case of overconfidence, said Paul Baugher, director of the Northwest Avalanche Institute and ski patrol director at Crystal Mountain ski area.

"People in the Northwest are not used to the idea of the snowpack being sensitive," Baugher said Thursday. He himself was buried in an avalanche at the beginning of December while on an avalanche control assignment.

The most recent Washington avalanche deaths occurred Tuesday when five snowmobilers were caught in an avalanche in the Excelsior Pass area north of Mount Baker in the northwest corner of the state. Two were killed and one injured.

In recent winters, an average of two or three people have died in avalanches in Washington state. The national average is about 25, with the most deaths in Colorado and Alaska, according to the U.S. Forest Service's National Avalanche Center in Ketchum, Idaho.

The center's director, Doug Abromeit, said high winds usually make Colorado one of the most dangerous places for backcountry travel, but Colorado has had only one avalanche death this season. Wyoming has also had one, on Wednesday, and Utah has had three.

In Canada, British Columbia has had three avalanche deaths this season and so has Alberta.

Snow in Washington usually falls wet and heavy and even a deep snowpack can be solid. But this year is different, explained Kenny Kramer, avalanche meteorologist with the Northwest Weather and Avalanche Center.

So far this year, Washington's snowpack is 30 percent to 60 percent above normal, and the snow isn't falling in the usual steady pattern that leaves a hard, solid snowpack, Kramer said. The conditions are similar to previous La Nina years, when avalanche deaths also increased, but not to this season's level.

The La Nina weather system causes cooler ocean temperatures, leads to drier weather in the southern hemisphere and wetter-than-normal winters with more rain and snow in the Pacific Northwest.

December in Washington began with a storm that dropped more than 20 inches of snow in the mountains over an 18-hour period, immediately followed by warmer weather and rain. The same storm system that brought record floods to Western Washington's lowlands brought a high avalanche danger to the mountains, Kramer said.