STEVENS PASS — The snowboarder killed in an avalanche at Stevens Pass Sunday has been identified as a 20-year-old Riley McCarthy of Tukwila.
The man was swept into a tree about 4:30 p.m., King County sheriff’s Sgt. John Urquhart said.
The victim and three friends were snowboarding on U.S. Forest Service land when he went down the hill in a slightly different direction than the others and was hit from behind by an avalanche and carried into a tree, Urquhart said.
The snowboarders were in an out-of-bounds area of the Stevens Pass ski area in an area known as Cowboy Mountain, according to reports.
The other men were not injured and managed to dig the victim out, Urquhart said. He suffered injuries from hitting the tree and was not breathing.
One of the men called 911 while the others performed CPR.
The three friends, all in their early 20s, are students at the University of Washington.
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