Mukilteo students mourn victim of avalanche

MUKILTEO ­— Emily Swanson was an athletic girl who loved soccer and softball, friends and family, hiking, snow and chocolate ice cream.

Classmate Nick Reynolds will remember her most for another quality: her kindness.

“She didn’t care who you were,” said Nick, 12. “She was nice to everyone.”

The 13-year-old Mukilteo girl, who died Friday in an avalanche on the north slopes of Mount Pilchuck, was remembered Monday at Harbour Pointe Middle School as a humble child who encouraged others.

Photographs of the smiling seventh-grader and written and artistic tributes to her filled a wall inside the school Monday as students returned from winter break.

Nick spent part of his Sunday with Emily’s family. He left with a pocketful of anecdotes that he shared with his school in an open letter to classmates and teachers.

He told how the night before the avalanche, Emily asked her brother what his friends would like for lunch. She made sandwiches and put each in plastic bags with their names on them.

He relayed a colorful side of her as well.

As her grandparents’ 50th anniversary approached, Emily cut a deal with her mom.

“Emily did not like wearing dresses, but her mom really wanted her to wear one so they compromised,” Nick said. “She wore a dress — and under that, gym shorts and tennis shoes.”

Vic Alinen, a Harbour Pointe PE teacher and former pastor, was asked to meet with a few students Saturday morning at the school.

“I was expecting maybe 20 kids,” he said. “There were more than 175 people. All of her teams, all of her coaches and all sorts of parents who love her mom and dad. We stayed there from 9 o’clock until noon.”

The gathering was originally intended to be in the gym but found its way to the commons because of the need for extra space, Alinen said.

Alinen said Emily was as humble as she was gifted athletically. She was the fastest seventh-grader at school and one of the top athletes in her class, but she always encouraged classmates whether they struck out in softball or missed a goal in soccer.

“Her encouragement was unbelievable,” Alinen said. “She didn’t think of herself as superior.”

On Monday, Emily’s family continued to ask reporters for time and space to grieve, their friends said.

Emily’s hiking party Friday included a man, 45, and six children, ages 12 to 16. The group set out to hike the 2.7-mile trail to Lake 22 on the north slopes of Mount Pilchuck off the Mountain Loop Highway.

Bad weather forced the group to turn back before reaching the mountain lake. The avalanche struck and four children were trapped. One boy freed himself and the group rescued two other girls.

The hikers searched for Emily for an hour. They hiked out to get help at the Verlot visitor’s center.

A search-and-rescue crew found Emily several hours later and brought her body down early Saturday.

Two other people from Snohomish County are among the eight people who already have died this season in avalanches in Washington.

An Everett woman, 43, died last week when her snowmobiling party was engulfed in a snowslide. A Brier man, 22, died before Christmas on Mount Rainier while snowshoeing.

December storms have created a dangerously unstable snowpack in the mountains, experts said. Rising and falling freezing levels, windstorms and unusually deep snow accumulations have set up perfect conditions for avalanches.

Avalanche danger remains high as another storm is expected to dump up to two feet of snow in the Cascades by Wednesday.

Monday was a difficult day at both Harbour Pointe, where Emily’s sister attends school, and Kamiak High School, where Emily’s brother is a student. Emily’s siblings weren’t at school Monday, but the girl’s family gave counselors their blessing to talk with students, school district officials said.

Students at both schools were allowed to gather in private to talk and grieve, said Judith Murdock, the Mukilteo School District’s executive director for secondary education.

Harbour Pointe Principal Nikki Cannon informed parents about Emily’s death and what the school was doing to help students cope in a letter sent home Monday.

“The accident will affect our entire school community,” she said.