Officials on Tuesday recovered the bodies of two backcountry skiers who were killed in an avalanche in Oregon's Cascade Mountains the day before, officials said.
Emergency workers responded to an overnight avalanche report near the Happy Valley snowmobile trail west of Bend, and Top Peak was broken, the Dachute County Sheriff's Office said in a statement Tuesday. In a later update, the office said two bodies had been recovered in the area.
Authorities have not yet released the names of the two victims, but the Central Oregon Avalanche Center said they are longtime resident of Central Oregon.
The avalanche that occurred at a height of 6,700 feet on a south-facing slope was classified as D2 and could hurt, buried, or kill people, the Avalanche Center said on social media. D2 is the second lowest on the 5-level scale.
The avalanche is likely to have occurred Monday afternoon, the Avalanche Center said in a preliminary report on the accident released Tuesday. It could have been caused by skiers.
