On Friday at the Summit at Snoqualmie ski resort, a major winter recreation center in the Cascade Mountains about an hour’s drive from Seattle, a rescue operation took place. Professional skier Ian Deans noticed the legs of another rider sticking out of a snowbank. Realizing immediately that the person was buried head-first under the snow, Deans and another skier rushed to help and quickly dug the victim out. The popular day-trip resort offers accessible terrain, and the incident occurred on the groomed Alpine run during the first public run of the day.
Ian Deans, who was filming video for the resort at the time, said he saw a flailing pair of skis and legs pointing upward. That was a warning sign to him: if you can’t see the hands, the head is likely under the snow. He immediately tried to reach the buried person’s airways but at first couldn’t pull him out, so he began rapidly digging snow away from the face area. The rescuer estimated the man was under the snow for 30 to 40 seconds.
The dangerous situation was caused by an abnormal amount of snow that fell over the past week — nearly two meters (about 6.5 feet) — which made the snowpack very deep even on groomed slopes. Such intense snowfall in the Cascades is often driven by “atmospheric rivers,” specifically the “Pineapple Express,” which brings warm, moisture-laden air from the tropics to the coast. When that air hits the cold mountain peaks, it produces heavy precipitation. Deans emphasized that the run was not difficult, but the abundance of snow created the hazard. The skier fell and became submerged after a snowboarder he was following made a sudden turn. The incident clearly shows that the danger of being buried in snow exists not only in the backcountry.
The professional skier noted an important nuance: while safety issues, including immersion in deep snow, receive a lot of attention in the freeride community (off-piste skiing), casual resort visitors often don’t appreciate these risks. Water in any aggregated state, including snow, blocks breathing, and a person buried beneath a mass of snow has very little time.
Following the incident, Ian Deans offered several practical tips for skiing in deep-snow conditions. He recommends always skiing with friends, staying within sight and earshot, avoiding wrist straps on poles so they don’t entangle you in a fall, and discussing potential risks before heading out on the slope. “It’s not a pleasant feeling to be buried in snow. You don’t have much time to breathe,” Deans concluded.
Based on: Skier at Summit at Snoqualmie rescued from estimated 40 inches of snow - The Seattle Times