The authorities on Tuesday recovered the bodies of two backcountry skiers who were killed in an avalanche in the Cascade Mountains in Oregon the day before, officials said.
Emergency workers responded to reports of an avalanche overnight near a snowmobile trail in Happy Valley, west of the city of Bend and near Broken Top peak, the Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement on Tuesday. In a later update, the office said that two bodies had been recovered in the area.
The authorities are not yet releasing the names of the two victims, but the Central Oregon Avalanche Center said that they were longtime residents of central Oregon.
The avalanche, which occurred at a height of 6,700 feet on a south-facing slope, was classified as D2, meaning it could injure, bury or kill a person, the avalanche center said on social media. D2 is the second lowest on a five-level scale.
The avalanche most likely occurred on Monday afternoon, the avalanche center said in its preliminary report on the accident released on Tuesday. It may have been set off by the skiers.