2 headed to hospital after deadly Ore. avalanche
GRANTS PASS, Ore. (AP) — Two injured backcountry skiers from Washington state who survived a deadly avalanche in northeastern Oregon's Wallowa Mountains are being towed on rescue sleds to a nearby town where a National Guard helicopter can pick them up.
Baker County Undersheriff Warren Thompson said late Wednesday afternoon that rescuers were able to get the man and woman who both suffered broken legs off a steep slope where they'd spent the night.
The sleds were hitched to a snowcat and a snowmobile and towed about a dozen miles to the community of Halfway. A National Guard helicopter was to meet them at the high school there and fly them to Baker City.
There rescuers will decide whether to treat the skiers at the local hospital, or fly them to a trauma center in Boise.
The avalanche Tuesday killed two others in the party of six skiers and two guides.
