An avalanche came crashing down on about a dozen skiers in Washington’s Stevens Pass Sunday, killing three expert skiers but sparing a fourth who managed to use an avalanche “air bag” safety device. The group was swept about 1,500 feet down a canyon, officials said. The three victims, all reportedly in their 30s or 40s, were said to be well-known members of the ski community familiar with the out-of-bounds area they were traveling through. “The debris pile at the bottom was massive,” a witness said. It was a tragic weekend on the state’s slopes, with a male snowboarder killed in another avalanche accident near Seattle.
