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The victims, who have not yet been identified, were part of a Korean climbing club in New York,according toThe New York Times, and include a 53-year-old man from Connecticut, a 60-year-old woman from New York and a 66-year-old man from New Jersey.
They were part of a six-member group who were trying to summit the 8,705-foot Colchuck Peak when one member of the party unintentionally triggered an avalanche,according to the Chelan County Sheriff’s Office(CCSO).
Four of the climbers were swept 500 feet down the couloir, where two immediately died,theSeattle Timesreported.
A third climber suffered a knee injury but was able to administer CPR to the fourth, who later died,The New York Timesreported.
The group was apparently unaware of the avalanche forecast for Sunday morning and were not trained to deal with the possibility of facing one while on the mountain, per theSeattle Times.
The three surviving climbers, who were not carrying phones or communication devices, returned to base camp where they met up with a seventh member of the group who’d stayed behind.
That man, a 53-year-old from Maryland, hiked an estimated five miles in deep snow before reaching the trailhead and contacting authorities early Monday, the sheriff’s office said.
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Four members of the Chelan County Mountain Rescue reached the base camp but determined that “avalanche conditions were too hazardous to continue to the deceased climbers,” according to the CCSO.
In total, 22 first responders assisted in the effort on Monday, the CCSO said.
“Rescuers were not sent back in to the scene today due to hazardous conditions,” the office said in its statement Tuesday. “CCSO continues to work with Northwest Avalanche Center to assist in a recover plan.”
The climbers' deaths were the first fatalities during the season, Scott Schell, executive director of the Northwest Avalanche Center, toldThe New York Times.
source: people.com
