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A Lost Climber’s Pack Emerges 30 Years After an Avalanche

In the summer of 1986, three young men and their guide were swept up in a giant avalanche that rolled down Mount Baker, burying everything in its path beneath 30 feet of snow and ice. Steve Raschick and the guide, Ian Kraabel, were killed. Nearly three decades later, a climber came across a remnant of that terrible day—Raschick’s backpack, its contents literally frozen in time.

That bag eventually made its way to photographer Andrew Waits, who made poignant images of the backpack and its contents to illustrate “Unburied: The Secrets of a Deadly Mount Baker Avalanche” in Seattle Met. “I didn’t really know what I had when I first got the bag, but a day later they sent me a draft of the story and I realized it was Steve’s bag,” Waits says. “I felt really lucky to be part of the story, but also knew I had to handle it with care.”

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