Hawkins Mountain, Washington – On Saturday, March 4, 2017 Mike Albertson, 45, from Kirkland, Washington was caught, buried, and killed in an avalanche while snowmobiling with a friend near Hawkins Mountain, north of Cle Elum, in Kittitas County, Washington.
Both Albertson and his friend were caught in the slide. Albertson was fully buried and the other snowmobiler was only partially buried. Other people in the area were able to quickly located the partially buried individual, but it took about 30 minutes to locate Albertson “who had struck a tree and was completely buried” (SeattleTimes.com). Resuscitation efforts were unsuccessful.
Rescuers attempted to respond to area by helicopter, but had to turn around due to bad weather. Ground teams reach the site on Sunday morning and recovered the body.
NWAC reports that the accident “is believed to have been in the Gallagher Head Lake area, NE of Salmon La Sac.” NWAC will compile a full accident report and publish it when completed. On March 3 at 8:27pm, the NWAC rated the avalanche danger as Moderate for Saturday.
A GoFundMe.com site has been set up to support Mike Albertson’s family.
We will try to update this post when more information is available.
This is the 10th avalanche fatality in the US for the 2017/2017 winter season:
- 14 February 2017 – West Lost Lake, Colorado – 1
- 9 February 2017 – McCoy Creek, Idaho – 1
- 28 January 2017 – Cooper Landing, Alaska – 1
- 5 January 2017 – Stanton Mountain, Montana – 1
- 4 January 2017 – Crystal Mountain, Washington – 1
- 27 December 2016 – White Pass, Washington – 1
- 23 December 2016 – Grand Targhee Backcountry, Wyoming – 1
- 11 December 2016 – Henderson Mountain, Montana – 1
- 10 December 2016 – Mt. Rose, Nevada – 1
