We had another avalanche death in the Sierra--a skier. The narrative is not typical, as he was hit by a series of slides, not just one large one, and his friends watched the whole thing and responded quickly.
Brackett then started to ski the slope. On his third turn, he triggered an avalanche about 1 foot deep. Brackett grabbed a tree and was able to stop himself from being swept into the slide.
But the avalanche then "stepped down" another 15 to 20 inches and pulled him away from his tree-hold and carried him down-slope into trees. His partners skied to the trees, where they saw a ski protruding from the snowpack and used their locator beacons to find Brackett.
His body was wrapped around a tree and buried 3 feet deep. It took three minutes for his ski partners to reach him. He suffered severe injuries, according to the avalanche center website, and he later died at a hospital in Truckee.
They were skiing on the heels of a big storm, which hit after a long dry spell. If I were to invent perfect avalanche conditions, I'd have had a hard time topping these.
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