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Sheriff's department at scene of avalanche.

One woman has now been declared dead while a 60-year-old man is still missing after a pair of avalanches  ripped through the mountains Saturday near Snoqualmie Pass in Washington state, authorities said.

The search for the missing man was suspended indefinitely Saturday night because of poor weather in the area, located about 50 miles east of Seattle, the King Country Sheriff's office said.

Authorities said three men hiking to the summit of Granite Mountain, near exit 47 on I-90, were swept away in an avalanche that hit a little before 1 p.m. Saturday. NBC station KING in Seattle said the avalanche carried the men about 1,000 feet. Two of the three hikers were able to get free from the snow, but the third member of their group, a 60-year-old man, was not located and remains missing.

Snoqualmie Pass, located along I-90, is a popular skiing and snowshoeing destination.

In a separate incident Saturday afternoon, a woman died after being buried under five feet of snow when an avalanche hit near exit 52 off I-90. The incident occurred not long after the first avalanche in the area, authorities said.

A group of hikers snowshoeing in the area was caught in the avalanche Saturday. The members of that group were able to "self rescue," but realized the woman, who was walking nearby, was missing, officials said.

The group found the woman 45 minutes later buried in the snow and dug her out.

Authorities said the woman was "not moving and somewhat conscious" was she was rescued. Rescuers hiked for two hours to reach the woman and brought her out of the wilderness on a sled, authorities said. Medics eventually declared the woman dead.

The mountains in the area have been hit by spring snow in recent days, with a ski area at Snoqualmie Pass reporting 11 inches of new snow.

The Northwest Weather and Avalanche Center reported considerable avalanche danger above 3,000 feet Sunday. Westbound lanes of the Interstate-90 highway over the pass were closed Saturday night because of heavy snow.

A search was due to resume Sunday for a 60-year-old hiker missing after two avalanches struck separate groups Saturday during heavy snowfall in the mountains near Snoqualmie Pass east of Seattle, a King County officials said.

In one incident, an avalanche struck three people on Granite Mountain near milepost 47 about five miles west of the pass along Interstate 90, leaving one missing and one injured, King County sheriff's Sgt. Katie Larson told NBC News. The slide carried the snowshoers about 1,000 feet, NBC station KING of Seattle reported. 

In the other incident, a slide hit a group of 12 snowshoers at an elevation of about 4,800 feet in an area north of the pass, KING reported.

Rescuers were bringing the group Saturday evening. A woman who was in the group told KING her survival instincts kicked in.

"Horrible experience, fear, avalanche came down like water ... water shape ... so we held onto trees and we survived," Kay Seo said.

KING reported that one man was buried up to his armpits and a woman with a dog was found after the dog led rescuers to her.

Snoqualmie Pass is along Interstate 90 about 50 miles east of Seattle. It is a popular skiing and snowshoeing destination in the winter and early spring.

The mountains in the region have been hit by spring snowfall in the past couple days, with the Alpental ski area at Snoqualmie Pass reporting about 11 inches of new snow. The Northwest Weather and Avalanche Center reported considerable avalanche danger above 4,000 feet and moderate danger below that level on Saturday, with the risk increasing in the afternoon.

The heavy snow and resulting vehicle accidents caused authorities to close westbound lanes of Interstate 90 over the pass Saturday night. 

DENVER -- A backcountry skier was killed and another critically injured in a weekend avalanche they apparently triggered on a northern Colorado mountain pass, a day after three other people died in snowslides across the country, authorities said on Sunday.

The two men in Colorado were cross-country skiing Saturday on the western side of Cameron Pass, about 135 miles northwest of Denver, when they were buried in the avalanche, said Kent Minor, manager of State Forest State Park.

"There were two sets of ski tracks going in, so the assumption is they caused the avalanche," Minor said, adding that the slab of snow and ice that broke loose was 300 to 400 yards long.

The two skiers were outfitted with avalanche-locator beacons, and rescuers on snowmobiles reached them late Saturday afternoon after battling through deep snow and steep, rugged terrain, he said.

The first skier they reached was found dead, and rescuers then dug out the second man, who had been buried for 90 minutes, Minor said. Neither victim has been identified.

Minor said it took rescuers on snowmobiles, snowshoes and snow sleds more than five hours to get the injured man to a spot where a helicopter could land and airlift him to the hospital, where he was listed in critical but stable condition.

Crews returned to the area on Sunday morning to retrieve the body of the dead skier, Minor said. A dog that accompanied the pair has not been located, he said.

Scott Toepfer, a forecaster with the Colorado Avalanche Information Center, said Saturday's incident was the fourth avalanche-related death in Colorado this season and the 13th nationwide.

Toepfer said the Colorado fatality brought to four the number of U.S. avalanche deaths so far in March, including a snowmobiler in Utah, a skier in Wyoming and a climber in New Hampshire who were all killed in separate snowslides on Friday.

In a typical year, 25 people in the United States perish in avalanches, he said. 

A 49-year-old snowboarder and a veteran ski patroller were killed in separate avalanches in the Lake Tahoe area on the day before Christmas, authorities said.

Steven Mark Anderson, 49, of Hirschdale, Calif., an unincorporated community outside Truckee, was reported missing at noon PST Monday at Donner Ski Ranch. A search dog found his body about 1:30 p.m. under 2 to 3 feet of snow at the base of an avalanche within the ski area boundaries near the main lodge.

He had been snowboarding with friends, but they had separated before the avalanche, Nevada County Sheriff's Deputy David Lade said, according to a report by The Associated Press.

Also Monday morning, Bill Foster, 53, was buried when a fellow ski patrol worker intentionally set off a slide with an explosive device during avalanche control work at Alpine Meadows, the resort said in a statement.

Foster, who was a ski patroller for 28 years, was uncovered within eight minutes and efforts were made to resuscitate him, but he died later at a hospital, Reuters reported.

The area was within boundaries in Sherwood Bowl but it was closed to the public at the time. The avalanche broke "much higher and wider on the slope than previously observed in past snow safety missions," the resort said.

Holiday travelers stranded as snow and wild weather heads east

Tahoe-area ski resorts received at least 3 feet of snow in a wind-whipped series of storms from Friday through Sunday, leading to perilous conditions even within ski area boundaries. 

On Sunday, two skiers at Squaw Valley — a 39-year-old woman and 16-year-old boy — were treated for non-life threatening injuries after they were swept up in an avalanche, although neither was buried.

"With the extremely heavy snowfall we've gotten over the last three days and the conditions prior to that, it's prime avalanche conditions," Lade said.

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A woman buried by an avalanche Tuesday spent at least 10 minutes under a couple of feet of snow until the ski patrol raced to the scene at Washington state's Crystal Mountain and freed her.

Members of the rescue team and an avalanche rescue dog named Newman rushed to the area where the woman had last been spotted by the two men who were skiing alongside her. Using long metal probes, the rescuers searched in the snow, ski patrol director Paul Baugher told NBC affiliate KING5.

“They felt something fairly quickly, they dug down to investigate, they found a hand,” he said.

The woman was quickly dug out, conscious and breathing. She had been buried for at least 10 minutes, Baugher said. 

"She was fine," he said.

Baugher told NBC affiliate KING5 the avalanche took place just after 2 p.m., and the three skiers were caught in the middle of it in a steep area of the slope.

The two men were able to dig themselves out, but the woman was buried under the powder. Baugher told The Associated Press that a ski patrol member reached the area within five minutes after the emergency call came in. Personnel had recently completed avalanche control work nearby, he said.

“There’s always luck,” Baugher told the newspaper. “But when a good outcome comes, we make a lot of that. The skiers helped make some of their own luck.”

A big storm dumped more than 40 inches of snow on Crystal this week and triggered strong winds, increasing the risk for the formation of avalanches.

Crystal Mountain is on the northeast corner of Mount Rainier National Park in Washington’s Cascade Mountains.

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Four Japanese climbers, two men and two women, are presumed dead after an avalanche swept down Mt. McKinley in Alaska's Denali National Park, the National Park Service said Saturday. One man survived after climbing out of a crevasse he had been thrown into.

The five-person team was roped together when the slide hit at 2 a.m. Thursday on the mountain's West Buttress, in an area known as Motorcycle Hill, the park service said in a statement.

"The five were travelling as one rope team, although the rope broke during the avalanche," the service stated.

Some 400 people were searching the area Saturday, but snow and wind have impeded the effort on North America's tallest mountain.

Hitoshi Ogi, 69, survived with minor injuries, making his way down from the avalanche at 11,000 feet to a base camp at 7,200 feet by 4 p.m. on Thursday.

A helicopter crew deployed that day failed to find any sign of the others, the service said.

Those presumed dead are 64-year-old Yoshiaki Kato; 50-year-old Masako Suda; 56-year-old Michiko Suzuki; and 63-year-old Tamao Suzuki.

Becky Bohrer / AP

Mt. McKinley, where 4 climbers were presumed dead, is North America's tallest mountain.

All are from Miyagi Prefecture -- the same area devastated by the 2011 quake and tsunami -- and were descending the mountain when the avalanche hit.

If confirmed, the deaths would be the worst accident on McKinley since 1992, when four Canadian climbers died.

On May 23, a Finnish man died after falling 2,000 feet while trying to ski down a steep McKinley chute known as the "Orient Express".

The first death of the 2012 McKinley climbing season was on May 18, when a German climber died in a 1,100 foot fall. He was trying to retrieve a backpack that was sliding downhill when he lost his footing and fell.

The climbing season in Denali generally runs from late April until early July. Usually 1,200 to 1,300 people attempt McKinley each year.

"Substantial snowfall and windy conditions in recent weeks have kept most climbers from reaching the top," the service said Saturday. "As of June 16, there are 395 mountaineers attempting routes on Mt. McKinley, the majority on the West Buttress route. Out of the 630 climbers that have already returned from expeditions this season, 234 reported reaching the summit, equating to a 37 percent summit rate."

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A backcountry ski guide was killed in an avalanche in steep mountains near the southeast Alaska town of Haines, Alaska state troopers said.

Robert Liberman, 35, of Telluride, Colo., was buried by the slide Tuesday morning and died at the scene, the troopers said.

Liberman was among six people helicopter-skiing in an area known as Takhin Ridge. The region has become increasingly popular with skiers paying for helicopter services to reach undeveloped terrain.

Another of the six skiers was also buried and was "clinging to life" after being dug out, Haines radio station KHNS reported in a broadcast monitored by the Anchorage Daily News.

He was transported to a hospital in Seattle, Wash., for medical treatment. The injured person was not identified pending notification of relatives.

Liberman was a guide with Haines-based Alaska Heliskiing. In a profile posted on the company's website, he described himself as a former University of Colorado ski racer and an all-around outdoors enthusiast. "Alaska has always been the mecca and after my first pilgrimage in 2005, I have been returning more appreciative and humbled each year," he wrote.

All of the skiers were wearing avalanche beacons.

Liberman was the first person killed in an Alaska avalanche this winter, according to statistics kept by the Alaska Avalanche Information Center.

Five people died in Alaska avalanches during the 2010-2011 winter and spring season, according to the center. One of those killed was a backcountry skier near Haines, while three were mountain climbers in Denali National Park. The fifth was a hiker on a mountain in the Anchorage area.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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A skier who was caught in an avalanche in Alpine Meadows, Calif., died late Thursday, NBC station KCRA reported.

The 29-year-old man had been skiing with two other people in rugged terrain when they were hit by a wave of snow, sheriff's officials said.

One of the skiers was able to get out and call for help while one other stayed behind with the injured man, KCRA said.

The sheriff's officials told KCRA they were informed of the incident at 2:50 p.m. local time (5:50 p.m. ET).

The rescue teams reached the scene at 4:20 p.m. (8:50 p.m. ET). ABC station NEWS10 reported that rescuers approached the area on a snowcat but had to hike for half a mile to reach the victims still at the scene.

Extreme skiing deaths on the rise in California community

Rescuers said the man who died had been slammed against a tree and partly buried in snow, NEWS10 reported.

"We had to unwrap him from around some trees and stuff and dig him out a bit more," Tahoe Nordic Search and Rescue team member Doug Read told NEWS10. "The slide had gone at least another 500 feet below that through a pretty thick forest and it was very unstable."

The man was taken to Tahoe Forest Hospital in Truckee, where he later died. His name has not been released, the sheriff's office said.

KCRA reported that another of the three skiers suffered a broken leg.

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NBC station KCRA and msnbc.com staff contributed to this report.

Updated at 8:35 a.m. ET: SEATTLE – Three men died in an avalanche in an out-of-bounds area near a popular Washington state ski resort on Sunday, authorities said. Several other skiers who had initially been reported missing were later accounted for. 

Sgt. Cindi West of the King County Sheriff's Office confirmed the deaths of three people to msnbc.com. The skiers were believed to be aged in their 30s and 40s.

The tragedy occurred at Stevens Pass ski resort in the Cascade Mountains, about 13 miles east of the town of Skykomish.

Other skiers in the group managed to dig out the men and performed CPR. However, they were later declared dead.

NBC News reported Monday that they had been swept about 2,000 feet down the slope.

According to King5.com, one skier was wearing a safety device if swept up in an avalanche. Elyse Saugstad, a professional skier, survived.

'Flipped and tumbled'
Saugstad told NBC's TODAY that she felt like she was in a "washing machine and being flipped and tumbled" after activating the device and being carried downhill.

"There wasn’t much sound," Saugstad said. "It literally was just trying to figure out within seconds of what exactly was happening and how I was going to deal with this. It was a very long ride and there was a lot of time to think."

Saugstad told TODAY that the avalanche danger wasn't high when the group went out Sunday. She said they were all "experienced back-country skiers."

"I’m just still in shock," she added. "I’m absolutely devastated at the loss of my friends."

Saugstad said that she "will definitely ski again."

In a separate incident in the Cascades on Sunday, a snowboarder died after plunging off a cliff, West said. According to the Seattle Times, the snowboarder, age 41, triggered an avalanche that pushed him over a cliff.

The Northwest Weather and Avalanche Center on Sunday issued a warning for high avalanche danger for areas above 5,000 feet. The elevation of the avalanche wasn't immediately clear.

At mid-afternoon, the temperate at the base of the ski resort was 24 degrees, with light winds and good visibility. The temperature at the top of the mountain was 22 degrees, according to the resort's website.

The site also said Sunday was a "popular powder day" at the resort, with 14 inches of fresh snow falling overnight.

Stevens Pass, an 80-mile drive from Seattle, is among the most popular outdoor recreation areas in the state. People flock there to go cross-country, back-country and downhill skiing, as well as snowshoeing and backpacking.

It's been a deadly winter in Washington state's mountains. Four people disappeared in vicious storms while hiking and climbing on Mount Rainier last month.

Across the West, there had been 13 avalanche deaths this season as of Feb. 16, according to the Colorado Avalanche Information Center, which tracks avalanche deaths in the U.S.

Avalanche deaths are more common in the backcountry than at ski resorts. Out of about 900 avalanche deaths nationwide since the 1950-1951 winter, 32 were within terrain that was open for riding at ski resorts, according to the Utah Avalanche Center.

The Associated Press, msnbc.com staff and NBC News contributed to this report.

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A 24-year-old snowboarder has died after becoming trapped in an avalanche in a steep Utah backcountry area that the public was warned to avoid after potent snowstorms.

The death marks the ninth avalanche fatality in the West this season, and experts say the risk of additional slides could remain high all winter.

NBC affiliate KSL TV reported that Alecsander Barton was with two other men when the avalanche occurred Saturday morning in the Wasatch Range's Big Cottonwood Canyon near Salt Lake City. 

The other two — a snowboarder and skier — watched as Barton descended Kessler Peak and triggered an avalanche that carried him an estimated 2,400 feet, or half a mile, down the mountain. They found his body under three feet of snow about an hour later using avalanche beacons. 

STORY: Avalanche danger across West is high

Experts say a weak base layer of snow, packed with large grains of ice, is plaguing parts of Utah, Colorado, Montana and California. They say these conditions could keep avalanche risks high for the rest of the season.

So far, four people have died in avalanches in Colorado, three on the Wyoming-Montana border and two in Utah.

Last season saw 25 avalanche deaths, and the one before saw 36.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.