A brother and sister hiking in the backcountry in Southern Colorado got caught in an avalanche, and authorities are searching for the woman.
Authorities in Alamosa County said a man reported his sister was missing after they were hit by an avalanche Thursday morning near 14,345-foot-high Blanca Peak, about 140 miles south of Denver.
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Crews on snowmobiles were only able to get to within 5 miles of the site but had to turn back because of deep snow, Alamosa County Undersheriff Maj. John L. Bianca said. A helicopter sent to the site forced back because of high winds.
The search was to continue Saturday.
The brother was taken to a hospital but the extent of his injuries wasn’t immediately known. He had to hike out to get within mobile-phone range to alert authorities.
Bianca identified the man as Nick Stevens of Loveland. He did not immediatley know the name of the missing woman.
It was unclear whether Nick Stevens was hiking with his sister, Lygon. The brother-sister team in May scaled Alaska’s Mount McKinley, North America’s highest peak, with a nonprofit organization called Climbing for Christ, according to The Daily Reporter-Herald.
The newspaper said Nick is a Colorado State University student studying economics, and Lygon is a music student at the University of Northern Colorado. Both have extensive climbing experience, having scaled Colorado Fourteeners and other peaks around the country. Nick works for Laramie-based Solid Rock Outdoor Ministries, and Lygon has climbed the tallest mountain in Ecuador, the newspaper reported.
