2 teenage snowshoers killed in avalanche near Snoqualmie Pass



SNOQUALMIE PASS, Wash. -- Two teenagers, ages 17 and 18, were found dead one day after they went missing while snowshoeing in the backcountry near Alpental, according to the King County Sheriff's Office.

Their parents called 911 Sunday night to report the boys missing.

Sheriff’s officials said they only had a small window of opportunity on Monday to look for the two before snow started falling again.

Conditions were very poor in the area over the weekend due to heightened avalanche danger following days of heavy snowfall in the Cascades.

The sheriff's office said that with the help of GPS on one of the teen’s phones, searchers were able to get a longitude/latitude of where the teens were generally located.

"At one point the searchers themselves had to pull out because of another avalanche that they were concerned would occur," the sheriff's office said.  "When search and rescue was able to go back to the area a short time later, they found the teens, unfortunately, they were deceased due to an avalanche."

A dangerous weekend


The Northwest Avalanche Center listed avalanche danger as "considerable" for all of the Washington Cascades and the Olympic Mountains.

Just a day earlier, an avalanche captured on video blocked  State Route 20/North Cascades Highway east of Newhalem in Whatcom County.

Elsewhere in Kittitas County, a 32-year-old Issaquah man died when five Western Washington snowmobilers were swept in an avalanche near Stampede Pass.