Avalanche search work suspended

Authorities have suspended the search for two skiers reportedly caught in a Sunday afternoon avalanche in the Canyon Creek drainage.

Poor weather, the instability of the surrounding snow mass, and the fact that no one has been reported missing prompted officials Wednesday to call off the rescue effort, according to the Flathead County Sheriff's Office.

The four-day search was launched after two snowmobilers who witnessed the avalanche told authorities that in addition to the two men killed and one survivor, they saw two more skiers on the trail get swept up in the slide.

"I know what I saw, and I know those guys got clobbered in there," one of the snowmobilers told the Inter Lake on Wednesday.

Officials brought the snowmobilers back to the avalanche site Wednesday to establish some physical reference points to help in the search.

Rescuers used probe poles and avalanche trained dogs in an attempt to locate skiers in the area the witnesses described seeing, but their efforts were unsuccessful.

For more on this story, read Thursday's Daily Inter Lake.