Skier yelled 'avalanche!' before being swept away
Twilight falls at Stevens Pass ski resort in the Cascade Mountains in Washington on Sunday. Earlier in the day, three skiers were killed in an avalanche just outside the resort. Ericka Schultz, The Seattle Times
UPDATE on 3 skiers and 1 snowboarder killed in avalanches Sunday in Washington
By Brian M. Rosenthal, Craig Welch, Mike Lindblom and Lark Turner, The Seattle Times
STEVENS PASS — Her buddy shouted "Avalanche!" but when things started sliding, it felt to professional skier Elyse Saugstad like just a tiny rush of loose snow beneath her skis.
In an instant the weight and pressure grew so immense that she rocketed down the slope, banging into trees and rolling upside down.
"The next thing I knew I was taking more than a 2,000-foot ride down an avalanche, tumbling and turning and tossing the entire way," Saugstad said Sunday.
She came to rest cemented in snow with her face exposed. The slide would kill three of her friends.
Three expert skiers, including the director of marketing services for the Stevens Pass ski resort and a widely known judge of competitive freeskiing events, died after being swept downslope and buried by the state's deadliest avalanche in years Sunday around noon.
Less than an hour earlier, a snowboarder died in an unrelated slide that swept him off a cliff near The Summit at Snoqualmie.
Read more about Saugstad's tale of survival and the slides that killed 4 on Washington's slopes Sunday.
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