Two Oregon avalanche victims with broken legs headed for hospital

GRANTS PASS, Ore. — Wrapped in blankets and tucked into rescue sleds, two backcountry skiers with broken legs were towed out of a remote spot in the Wallowa Mountains of northeastern Oregon where an avalanche killed two of their companions.

Baker County Undersheriff Warren Thompson said rescuers labored through the day Wednesday with ropes and other gear to get the man and woman from Washington state off a steep slope where they spent a cold and snowy night.

The sleds were hitched to a snowcat and a snowmobile headed to the community of Halfway, more than 10 miles away, Thompson said. A National Guard helicopter was to meet them at the high school and fly them to Baker City. There, rescuers were to decide whether to treat them at the local hospital or fly them to a trauma center in Boise, Idaho.

The injured were in a party of six skiers and two guides on the third day of a five-day trip through the backcountry of the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest when they were hit by an avalanche about noon Tuesday, authorities said. The victims’ names were not immediately released.

Bad weather prevented two National Guard helicopters from reaching the avalanche site.

The helicopters had to return to Baker City for fuel and stood by in Halfway to make another attempt when the weather improved, Thompson said. A third helicopter took over flight duties, but weather once again prevented it from reaching the area.

Rescuers first reached the stranded skiers Tuesday but could not get them off the steep slope, so they stayed with the survivors. Three uninjured skiers were taken out late Tuesday by snowcat, Thompson said. Another search-and-rescue team was able to ride in about 8 miles Wednesday but had to finish the last two miles on skis and on foot. The team used ropes and other gear to get the rest of the group up the slope to a flat area where the snowcat and snowmobile met them.

The seriously injured woman, from Wenatchee, Wash., suffered two broken legs and a shoulder injury; and the man, from Snohomish, Wash., had a broken femur, Thompson said. The four other skiers were from Seattle.

One guide was from Enterprise, Ore., and the other was from Bellingham, Wash.

Thompson said the bodies of the dead were not buried and would be removed after the injured were taken care of.

The ski trip was organized by Wallowa Alpine Huts, an outfitter from Joseph, Ore., that has been in business since 1980 and had never had a fatality on one of its trips, said owner Connelly Brown. He said two more guides skied in after the avalanche to help with the rescue.

“Right now we are just really battling the weather and nature,” Brown said.

The avalanche came down from above the group on the third day of their trip, Brown said. The group had planned to sleep at the Schneider Cabin, a historic miners’ log cabin on the south side of Cornucopia Peak.

Brown said the guides were certified by the American Institute for Avalanche Research and Education and trained by the American Mountain Guide Assn., and the skiers were all fit and proficient.

The avalanche occurred in the southern part of the Wallowa Mountains, near the Idaho border.

The Wallowas are known as “the Alps of Oregon.” With their rocky peaks and deep ravines, the mountains are popular with backcountry skiers, snowmobilers, hikers and horseback riders.

On Feb. 6, the weekly avalanche bulletin posted online by the Wallowa Avalanche Center said 12 to 18 inches of new snow was not bonding well to the old snow, and there was a report in the southern Wallowas that a skier had triggered a small slide, though no one was injured, and more slides were possible.

Director Keith Stebbings said the all-volunteer center does not issue warnings, as some do, but had sent an investigation team to the site and interviewed survivors. The center would issue a report in a few days.

The deaths brought to 12 the number of people who have died in avalanches nationally this season, including six in the West since Sunday.

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