Feb. 19 (UPI) — A skiing couple died in Oregon on Monday after an avalanche buried them near the Broken Top area west of Bend, the Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office said on Tuesday.

The Central Oregon Avalanche Center said the avalanche happened between the Bend Watershed and Broken Tip in a location called Happy Valley. Authorities had not publicly released the name of the couple as of Wednesday norming.

“The avalanche occurred at 6,700 feet on a south slope,” the center said in a statement. “The avalanche’s crown height averaged [17.7 inches] and the avalanche ran 320 vertical feet into a tight clump of feet.”

The center said that the avalanche’s trigger was unknown, but it is likely that the skiers unknowingly triggered the avalanche themselves.

“I am deeply saddened by the tragic loss of the couple who lost their lives,” Deschutes County Sheriff Kent Van Kamp said. “Their long history in the community and the lives they touched are a testament to the spirit and resilience that makes Central Oregon such a special place to live.”

Van Kamp said authorities were able to locate the bodies of the victims by midday on Tuesday after they received a call overnight about the avalanche.

“Their friends were able to use an app like a phone app located to the last ping of their friend’s phone,” van Kamp said. “They started searching the avalanche debris field and located that they believed was basically a limb of one of their friends coming out of the snow.

“They were concerned about a secondary avalanche so they withdrew from the area.”