Q&A: Meteorologist Rich Marriott analyzes fatal avalanche

After three people died in an avalanche on Stevens Pass, many are wondering if the skiers could have done something different or if they should have been in the backcountry at all.

KING-5 Meteorologist Rich Marriott, whose graduate research at the University of Washington turned into the Northwest Avalanche Center, says the skiers were prepared for the worst and there was nothing they could have done outside of not skiing that day.

Dave and Luke of 97.3 KIRO FM’s Ross and Burbank Show asked Marriott about the conditions and risk factors.

Listen to Meteorologist Rich Marriott

Q: Were the conditions at Snoqualmie and Stevens Pass atypical?

A: Everything was done right, but you can’t reduce risk to zero. Ninety nine out of a hundred times everybody gets through OK. This is that one time it just didn’t come together properly. There were 14 or 15 people skiing those slopes broken into smaller groups. They already had three people come down and not release anything. This one skier just hit the sweet spot for the slope and it shattered. When it shattered, it shattered large enough to actually go into the safe areas at the edge of the trees and pull people out. There’s a certain level of risk you can’t get rid of, no matter what you’re doing.

Q: The trees can’t deflect the snow?

A: Normally, trees are enough to break the force of the avalanche so that you can shoulder behind them or hold on to the tree or keep it from flowing through freely, but this one apparently involved enough snow and it was low enough density to move through the trees with enough force to pull them back into the main flow of the avalanche.

It was a large avalanche as it broke out. The fracture line was reportedly around 3 to four feet deep in spots and that’s a lot of snow considering hundreds of square yards start moving at one time. That’s hundreds of tons of snow starting to shift down the slope very quickly.

Q: What’s the most dangerous part of the avalanche?

A: Most fatalities with avalanches are through burial and suffocation, but a significant percentage of them are through trauma. I was caught in a small one one time and got caught in a tree and popped a disc.

It doesn’t have to be a very large avalanche. I think the bulk of fatal avalanches run less than 100 meters.

Q: Have you gone over the information the skiers would have had on Sunday?

A: Absolutely. It’s understandable and I probably would have skied that as well. I’ve actually skied that in the past. We knew there was some deep instability in the snowpack, but it wasn’t really showing up very often. They were taking the precautions you’d normally expect to take.

Q: How big of a sport has this become?

A: When we started the avalanche center in the mid 70’s the reason we were doing it was because of the increased use of the backcountry during the winter. It’s been a pretty good growth sport, including snowshoeing. The bulk of avalanche fatalities in North America are among snowmobilers.

Q: You would have skied this and you’re a guy who’s studied this for years. It sounds like this was a freak accident?

A: It’s something that can happen. It wasn’t a glaring error. They didn’t expect a slide this large to come out. If you think about it, the number of people who already came down the slope, if they missed that spot everybody would have gone on down the slope, and would have been back home that night.

Q: Should people be doing this?

A: Yeah, I think they should. You can be headed on to work in your car and have someone plow through a red light and come into the side of you. The only way you’re going to avoid that is to not work…People get struck by lightning on a golf course.