Two men have died in Washington state after being buried in an avalanche. The Kittitas County Sheriff’s Department said in a statement that Paul Markoff, 38, and Erik Henne, 43, were backcountry skiing at Longs Pass, in the Cascade Mountains, when the avalanche hit at around 4 p.m. They had been with two other men, named as Ian Laing and Patrick Leslie, who managed to use a satellite device to alert rescuers to their locations. They were found alive, with one of the men partially buried, according to the Northwest Avalanche Center, but rescuers were forced to call off the search for Markoff and Henne when it got dark, and conditions became dangerous. The pair’s remains were found the following day, buried in snow. “On Saturday morning, January 10, teams returned with three trained avalanche search K9s,” the sheriff’s department said. “Because of the rugged, remote terrain, air support was requested. King County’s Guardian 2 helicopter assisted by airlifting the two deceased men to a search base, where they were placed in the care of the Kittitas County Coroner’s Office.” The New York Times reports that 25 to 30 inches of snow accumulated near Longs Pass last week.
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