Skier dies in White Pass tree well

Published 8:07 am Monday, April 2, 2012

YAKIMA — A skier who died at White Pass was a woman in her 20s who worked at the ski area this season.

Ski area general manager Kevin McCarthy says Kyona Hoff fell headfirst into a tree well where snow piles up around a tree and apparently suffocated.

She was the last person in a group on a run Saturday. Her friends became concerned when she didn’t come down. Searchers found the body Saturday afternoon.

McCarthy told the Yakima Herald-Republic that after working at the ski area she had planned to go back to college later this year.

He called her death a fluke from an unfortunate set of circumstances.