A professional skier saved by a safety device recounted the horror of careering down a 3,000 foot ski slope in the avalanche that killed three other advanced skiers.
Survivor Elyse Saugstad told Good Morning America that being in the middle of an avalanche is ‘literally like being in cement.’
She said she had no choice but to try and breathe by keeping snow off of her face and wait for help.
Ms Saugstad told the morning program that the safety device – called an avalanche rescue system - strapped to her back saved her life.
‘The first thing that came to my mind was to use my airbag device,’ she said. Ms Saugstad likened the experience to using an ABS to being ‘in a washing machine.’
‘It’s not like an inner-tube ride,’ she added.
Four people were killed in two separate avalanches near Washington state ski resorts.
Three skiers died when an avalanche triggered near Stevens Pass, in the Cascade Mountains northeast of Seattle, just after noon on Sunday.
Jim Jack, a Freeskiing World Tour head judge, Stevens Pass marketing director Chris Rudolph and John Brenan were confirmed as the men who died by ESPN. All three lived in Leavenworth, Washington.
The avalanche swept the experienced skiers about a quarter-mile down a canyon but a fourth skier who was with them was saved by a safety device.
Sgt West said the deaths of three men, all reported to be in their thirties and forties, occurred in an out-of-bounds area near the local ski resort.
Three groups of skiers - 13 people in total - were making their way through a foot and a half of fresh snow when the avalanche triggered.
All were buried to some extent, but the men who died were swept 1,500 feet down a chute in the Tunnel Creek Canyon area.
Most of the other skiers, all well-equipped, were able to free themselves and rushed to dig out the victims. They performed CPR on the three men to no avail, police said in a statement.
Elyse Saugstad, a professional female skier who was part of the group, told ESPN that an airbag she was carrying in her backpack saved her life after she inflated it.
She said told the channel that when she came to rest: 'I was completely buried except for my head and hands'.
Such devices include wearable airbags that can be deployed to help a person float to the top of an avalanche rather than being buried underneath it, or inflatable bags that create space between a person's mouth and the snow.
'Most of the people involved in this were well-known to the ski community up here, especially to the ski patrol. It was their friends who they recovered.'
Deputy Bedker said: 'Most of the people involved in this were well-known to the ski community up here, especially to the ski patrol.
A 41-year-old Seattle man was also killed in an avalanche at the Alpental ski area while snowboarding out-of-bounds with friends.
Sgt West said: 'What the witnesses say is... he started his own avalanche and the avalanche swept him down the hill and over a cliff, which was about a 500-foot fall.'
Mr Jack spoke to ESPN in November about the risks involved in free skiing, a sport he had first competed in and then become a judge.
He said: 'Our events crown the best overall skier over a series of days and multiple runs. We do not want to find ourselves rewarding or encouraging dangerous or uncalculated decisions in skiing.'
Eight people who were initially reported missing have now been found, according to the Seattle PI.
Washington State patrol trooper Keith Leary said the snow came down on a road two miles from the Stevens Pass resort and ten miles from the town of Skykomish. Search and rescue crews were at the scene.
The Northwest Weather and Avalanche Center today issued a warning for high avalanche danger for areas above 5,000 feet.
The Stevens Pass resort website reported that 14 inches of snow fell over night. The resort offers courses in avalanche awareness and how to recognise dangerous terrain.
The resort in the Cascade Mountains sits on the edge of the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie and Wenatchee national forests.
The resort has more than a 1,000 acres for skiing and includes 37 major runs. It is popular for cross-country and downhill skiing, as well as snowshoeing and backpacking.
Four people disappeared in vicious storms while hiking and climbing on Mount Rainier in Washington last month.
The four remain missing, and authorities have said they're hoping to find their bodies when the snow melts this summer.
