Emergency crews respond to Hatcher Pass avalanche

Frontiersman staff

Rescue crews responded around 5 p.m. Saturday to a report of an avalanche in the Hatcher Pass area that buried one person and broke the leg of another.

Alaska State Troopers, Palmer Fire Department and emergency services crews have been at the scene for the last two hours.

According to Trooper Richard Chambers who is on scene, the area where the avalanche occurred cannot safely be reached by snowmachine, so troopers dispatched Helio 1 to the area to deliver tools to two people from another party who are in the avalanche area trying to dig out the two trapped people.

He said responders are in communication with the military, which they hope will dispatch a helicopter that can lower a sling and retrieve the people from the avalanche area.

This is a developing news story.