Two people were killed and one person was rescued and transported to the hospital following an avalanche near Lone Peak Canyon in Utah on Thursday, officials said.
Three backcountry skiers went missing around 10:15 a.m. Thursday, according to Sgt. Amee Race of Salt Lake City's Unified Police Department.
"We sent our officers up in the area," Race told Newsweek on Thursday afternoon, while the search-and-rescue mission was still underway. "We have a lot of people up there assisting."
A helicopter was able to rescue one of the skiers, and the bodies of the two others were found soon after, officials told the media. The names of the victims have not been released, but police identified them as two men, aged 23 and 32. One was from the Salt Lake City area and the other was from out of state. Rescuers planned to make another trip to the area of the avalanche to remove the bodies on Friday, once the weather cleared.
Lone Peak is in the Wasatch Range, southeast of Salt Lake City. It stretches from Little Cottonwood Canyon to Corner Canyon, or Mount Jordan.
Large avalanches are not typical for this late in the ski season, but the area recent experienced heavy snowfall, with up to three feet in upper elevations.
Update 5/9/24 7:00pm ET: This story has been updated with new information throughout.
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