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Danger hides beneath tempting layers of fresh powder

By Chester Allen | The Olympian • Published January 06, 2009

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Temptation suddenly oozed into my life Sunday night — in the form of a Twinkies display at a South Sound supermarket.

Two boxes of Twinkies — those greasy, gooey yellow delights of my childhood — were on sale for $5. Twenty Twinkies for five bucks!

"That's just 25 cents per Twinkie," that all-too-familiar voice from the silliest part of my brain whispered.

Another voice — from a smarter place — told me that Twinkies are bad for me, that 20 Twinkies are really bad for me and that I always feel queasy for a day or two after eating just one Twinkie.

I pushed temptation away, but I started thinking of other temptations, such as going out of bounds at ski areas to wallow in the fluffy, tasty powder that has fallen in the Cascades since Christmas.

Tiana Enger at Crystal Mountain reports that 88 inches of snow — more than 7 feet — fell between Christmas Day and Jan. 3.

That's a lot of great snow, and there is plenty of untracked powder just outside the boundary ropes of any ski area these days.

And there is a lot of fluffy snow in Mount Rainier and Olympic national parks.

Trouble is, that snow is even more dangerous than 20 Twinkies for $5.

Avalanches — when layers of snow break away and rush downhill with the speed and power of several freight trains — are a big danger in the Cascades every winter, but they are a real hazard when a lot of snow falls all at once.

The new snow sits on the slippery, icy bed of old snow, and it's on a hair trigger to slide downhill.

Avalanches are killers.

I was in British Columbia over the weekend, and people were still mourning the loss of several snowmobile riders who died in recent avalanches.

I visited the mountains that ring the beautiful city of Vancouver, and it was easy to see the layers of snow along the roadside drifts, which were about 4 feet high and growing.

I nudged one drift, and a layer slid into a mini avalanche.

Yikes.

One death in Washington already

A snowmobile rider died in an avalanche in the North Cascades on Dec. 28.