Avalanche kills 2 near Long Pass, Washington
At least 2 people were killed by an avalanche near Long Pass in Washington’s Cascade Mountains on January 9, 2026, while two others were safely rescued.
Helicopter being used for recovery operations after an avalanche kills 2 in Washington's Cascade Mountains on January 9, 2026. Credit: Kittitas County Sheriff's
The party of four was recreating in the backcountry snow near Longs Pass in the mountains of northern Kittitas County when the avalanche struck the area at around 16:00 local time (LT). The two survivors were able to send a distress signal using a satellite radio and were rescued that evening.
Responders reached the remote area using snowmobiles and winter backcountry equipment and transported the two survivors out that evening. Due to hazardous conditions, a nighttime recovery operation for the deceased was not conducted.
Teams returned with three trained avalanche search K9s. Air support was requested due to the rugged, remote terrain. 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.
Parts of the Pacific Northwest have been under a high avalanche risk since last week due to atmospheric rivers (AR) dropping rain and heavy snow.
The first AR made landfall over Alaska on January 9, bringing wet conditions to western Washington before merging with a second, weaker AR, which continued bringing heavy precipitation over the region.
Read more:
Rishav Kothari is Editor-in-Chief of The Watchers, where he runs the newsroom and covers earthquakes, volcanoes, severe weather and space weather.
Published in the last 24 hours
- Hawaii's largest freshwater lake was 200 feet deep at 10 a.m. on June 2, 2018. By that afternoon, lava from Kilauea had boiled it away Epicenter
- Flying glass cut a teacher in Russia but none of her 44 pupils, because when a meteor flashed across the sky in 2013, she told them to get under their desks Epicenter
- A South Dakota man put the widest and heaviest hailstone on US record in his freezer, and a power cut melted part of it before NOAA measured it at 8 inches across and nearly 2 pounds in 2010 Epicenter
- Black kites and brown falcons in northern Australia have been seen snatching smoldering sticks from wildfires, flying them into unburned grass and dropping them, starting new fires that send lizards, rodents and insects running straight toward the waiting birds Epicenter
