Avalanche: Hatcher Pass

3 skiers and 1 snowboarder were observed moving down gully on the SW face of Marmot on slope at the same time. 3 skiers had stopped slightly to the right and bottom of a cliff approximately halfway down the mountain. As the snowboarder reached the group she made a hard stop across the base of the cliff triggering the avalanche above her. The 3 skiers were able to ski to the side of the avalanche run and narrowly avoid being carried. The snowboarder was observed in the middle of the avalanche immediately deploying her avy bag. The bag remained barely visible the entire way down the slide and the snowboarder came to a stop with bag, arm, and head visible above the snow approximately 400-500 feet below where she was initially when the slide started

Our group of 4 skiers skinned up the SW face of Marmot along with several other people. We decided to take a more conservative route down just south of the pinnacle above the gully where the avalanche occurred due to having inexperienced skiers as well as out of concern for avalanches within the gully. We skied down without incident. While we were at our vehicles in the lot just below the lodge we watched the other group ski the gully and experience the avalanche described above.

The partially buried snowboarder was able to self recover at the base of the avalanche. She appeared to be on her feet and out of the snow approximately 2 minutes after she came to a stop. At the same time, all three skiers that were with her arrived at her and were able to assess her. We observed all of these events from the parking lot just below the cabins. We drove up to the group that experienced the avalanche and confirmed that there were no injuries or assistance needed.