3 climbers killed in an avalanche in Washington state

By Paradise Afshar and Elizabeth Wolfe, CNN

Three members of a climbing group are dead after becoming caught in an avalanche while scaling an 8,000-foot peak in central Washington state over the weekend, officials announced.

A six-person group was attempting to climb a steep gorge on Colchuck Peak in the Cascade mountains on Sunday afternoon when the avalanche happened, the Chelan County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release.

Four of the climbers were swept down about 500 feet, including the three who died “as a result of trauma sustained in the fall,” the release reads.

The three who died were buried by three additional slides that began about an hour after the initial avalanche, Rich Magnussen, emergency management program specialist for the Chelan County Sheriff’s Office told CNN.

The climbers who died were a 53-year-old Connecticut man, 60-year-old New York woman and 66-year-old New Jersey man, the release reads. Their names have yet to be released.

The surviving climber sustained non-life-threatening injuries and was able to hike back to the base camp with the other two people in the group, the release reads.

The group’s lead climber had triggered the avalanche during the ascent, the sheriff’s office said without elaborating.

The sheriff’s office was alerted to the deaths on Monday by a seventh climber who had stayed behind at the base camp and went searching for help when his group returned after the avalanche, the release reads.

Nearly two dozen rescue personnel responded to the trailhead, but avalanche conditions have been too hazardous to recover the dead climbers, the sheriff’s office said.

The sheriff’s office is working with the Northwest Avalanche Center on a recovery plan, the office said.

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