A memorial is growing outside the Bonney Lake police station after two native sons, one a police officer, the other an Air Force veteran, were swept to their deaths by an avalanche in the East Cascades.
That fatal avalanche happened Saturday night north of Esmeralda Peak, some 20 miles northeast of Cle Elum. Two other snowmobilers were injured but are expected to survive.
All four of the men either lived or worked in Bonney Lake, and there is an outpouring of emotion outside the police station.
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A gloom settled over Bonney Lake, the day after two men with deep ties to this city died in the avalanche.
One of them, 41-year-old James Larsen, was a 14-year-veteran of the Bonney Lake Police department.
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"He was James," said Bonney Lake Police officer Daron Wolschleger. "He was Jimmy. He was Jay. He was Jay-Lar. He was Larsen."
Wolschleger came into work on his day off so he could talk about the impact of the death of his coworker and friend.
"We're all really, really, really, really hurting," he said. "This was a big blow to not only us as a police department or a city, or the city of Bonney Lake, but the community as a whole."
That's because the avalanche which hit Larsen, also killed 27-year-old Zach Roundtree, a Bonney Lake native and Air Force veteran.
"He was a chip off the old block," his father Curt Roundtree said. "Caring, kind, helpful."
Roundtree, a longtime Bonney Lake Public Works employee, said one of Zach's friends described how the fatal accident happened.
"Kyle went up, and when he went to turn to come back down, the mountain let loose," Curt Roundtree said.
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Ryan Journey told Curt Roundtree he watched the avalanche bury his friends.
"Zachary went by Ryan, trying to outrun it," Curt Roundtree said. "Kyle was behind him, and Larsen was already pushed over, is what I was told, over the cliff."
Journey immediately went to work to free them.
"Got to Zachary and dug him out," Curt said, his voice breaking with emotion, "and couldn't revive him."
He says his son was always a daredevil, and that he lived to be on his snowmobile.
The same is being said of Larsen. Bonney Lake police say they are working with Larsen's family to figure out when services will be held to remember him.
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