Officials: No plans to recover victims of Wash. avalanche

No plans are in place to recover the bodies of a Connecticut man and two other climbers killed in an avalanche on a Washington mountain Sunday, according to the Chelan County Sheriff’s Office in Wenatchee, Wash.

One of the avalanche victims was identified Wednesday as Seong Cho, 54, of West Hartford. He died along with Jeannie Lee, a 60-year-old Bayside, N.Y., woman, and Yun Park, a 66-year-old Palisades Park, N.J., man, as their six-person team was scaling Colchuck Peak in central Washington.

One other person, a 56year-old New York man, was injured and survived, according to the sheriff’s office. He confirmed the three deaths before additional avalanches buried the remains, the Associated Press said.

Hazardous conditions have so far prevented authorities from recovering the bodies of Cho, Lee and Park.

Search parties did not attempt to reach the scene Tuesday due to heavy snow and strong winds, according to the Associated Press. Rescuers and two avalanche experts tried to reach the scene Monday and Wednesday, respectively, but were forced to turn back due to the continued avalanche risk, officials told the Associated Press. Cloudy skies prevented the sheriff’s office from dispatching a helicopter to survey the area Thursday, Sgt. Jason Reinfeld said.

“Recovery efforts from this point forward will be based on avalanche and weather conditions as well as rescuer safety,” the sheriff’s office said in a statement Wednesday.

The office told the Associated Press that recent snowfall had complicated recovery efforts. Twenty or more inches have fallen in the area in the past few days, the office said.