Two skiers have been rescued after they were trapped in an avalanche at the Taos Ski Valley in New Mexico, according to officials from the ski resort.
The men were trapped for 22 minutes after the avalanche sent snow pummeling down a mountain around 11:45 a.m. local time on Tuesday, Chris Stagg, vice president of Taos Ski Valley, Inc., told ABC News.
Rescuers dug the skiers out and transported them to the University of New Mexico Hospital in Albuquerque, Stagg said. Their conditions are not known.
Rescuers are continuing to search for other people who may be buried under the snow, ABC Albuquerque affiliate KOAT reported. The snow is so deep in some areas that the probes being used to locate people cannot reach the bottom, Stagg said.
The lift is providing access to these areas, Stagg added. Avalanche mitigation work with the use of dynamite and ski cutting, a technique where a skier repeatedly crosses the area to try and trigger a slide, was just done in the area Thursday morning, Stagg said.
The trigger of the avalanche is unknown at this time but a full investigation of the incident and its cause will be conducted.
It is unclear why the avalanche was not triggered during those efforts, Stagg said.
It is unclear what triggered the avalanche, which occurred on the K3 shoot off Kachina Peak, the ski resort wrote on Twitter.
The lift for Kachina Peak just opened on Wednesday, according to The Taos News. The lift rises to about 1,100 feet to take expert skiers and snowboarders to the top of the mountain, the newspaper reported.
Additional details were not immediately available.
ABC News’ David Herndon, Bonnie Mclean and Clayton Sandell contributed to this report.
