Two hikers missing in Washington state after avalanche

By Karen Brooks

(Reuters) - Two hikers were missing after at least one avalanche struck the mountains in Washington state on Saturday in an area east of Seattle that is a popular location for winter sports, a King County sheriff's spokeswoman said.

Sergeant Katie Larson said that a 60-year-old man who had been hiking with two companions went missing at around noon local time after an avalanche struck near Snoqualmie Pass in the Cascade Mountains, about an hour east of Seattle.

A second hiker received a non-life-threatening shoulder injury after the incident, she told Reuters.

In an apparent separate incident nearby, another person who had been among a group of 13 people hiking at the Alpental Ski Area was also reported missing, although Larson said the nature of that incident was not immediately clear.

"At some point something happened; we're not sure if it was an avalanche or an accident," Larson said, citing the remote location and communication difficulties with the hikers, who did not speak fluent English.

One hiker from that group suffered hypothermia and was being brought out of the mountains by rescuers, who have a two-and-a-half hour hike to where the group is located, Larson said.

"Obviously right now we're trying to (get) there as quickly as we can we before the weather conditions worsen and before nightfall," she said, adding that more heavy snowfall was expected in the area.

The King County Sheriff's Office had said earlier on social media that three people were missing in two avalanches, but Larson indicated that the number of missing had since been reduced to two.

(Reporting by Karen Brooks; Editing by Cynthia Johnston and Eric Walsh)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/two-hikers-missing-washington-state-avalanche-001004491.html

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