STEVENS PASS – Avalanches less than an hour apart claimed four lives at two separate resorts Sunday – one burying three skiers at Stevens Pass ski resort and another sweeping a snowboarder off a cliff at The Summit at Snoqualmie.

All four were in out-of-bounds areas of the resorts.

At about 11:30 a.m., a snowboarder at Alpental, one of four areas at The Summit at Snoqualmie resort, was with two friends when he triggered an avalanche that caused him to fall about 500 feet over a cliff, authorities say. The snowboarder was a 41-year-old Seattle man who has not been identified.

Twelve skiers in an ungroomed, out-of-bounds area at Stevens Pass resort were caught in that avalanche just after noon. Three of them did not respond to CPR and died, said Katie Larson, a spokeswoman with the King County Sheriff’s Office.

The bodies of all three, men in their 30s or 40s who were experienced skiers, were removed from the area Sunday afternoon.

“It’s nature,” Larson said. “I don’t want to make it seem trite, but sometimes nature is bigger than we are.”

The ski resort remained open Sunday and planned to reopen Monday.

The men had skied past a sign warning them that the area was out-of-bounds and that skiing was at their own risk, Larson said.

The skiers were expert, long-time regulars of the resort who were well-known, said Nathan Amisson, a Stevens Pass staff member.

“They’re good guys,” he said. “We all know them.”

Earlier Sunday, the King County Sheriff’s Office said as many as eight others were missing in the Stevens Pass avalanche, but authorities now say there were nine others, and that all made it out safely.

At Alpental, about 20 miles due southwest and a drive of about 90 miles from Stevens Pass, the snowboarder’s friends quickly called for help, but rescue workers were unable to find him until an hour and a half later.

By the time they reached him, the snowboarder was unconscious and could not be revived.

An initial report said the snowboarder was underneath the cliff when he became buried in snow, but Snoqualmie Pass Fire and Rescue Chief Jay Wiseman later clarified that he was carried over the cliff by the avalanche.

The Northwest Weather and Avalanche Center (NWAC) warned skiers of high avalanche danger above 5,000 feet near Stevens and Snoqualmie passes on Sunday, advising that some of the snow could be unstable and recommending people not travel in avalanche risk areas.