TURNAGAIN PASS, Alaska (AP) -- Even on grainy videotape, it's a terrifying sight: Giant slabs of snow breaking loose from an Alaskan ridge, swallowing fleeing snowmobilers in a 30-foot wave of powder.
The minutelong video, shot by a man standing a mile away from Sunday's avalanche, shows snow sliding down a 2,000-foot mountain high in Turnagain Pass. The snowmobilers vanish in a smoky white haze.Four bodies have been found. As many as six people were still missing.
Some 200 volunteers aided by search dogs were to resume searching Tuesday, using 10-foot poles to probe the snow and walking shoulder-to-shoulder in a methodical grid pattern, state trooper Paul Burke said.
"There's no tried-and-true way of doing this," he said. "The reality is we may not find anybody until spring. That's not a good way to do it, but that's where we're at."
Two slides 20 minutes apart roared down several miles of the mountain near Turnagain Pass, a popular recreation area in the Chugach National Forest about 55 miles southeast of Anchorage.
The first slide filled a ravine and scattered some of the hundreds of snowmobilers who were driving in the area. The larger avalanche began at the top of a 3,000-foot ridge.
Witnesses described a wall of snow that sounded like a train and a wind blast that drove icy particles into their faces. One said he saw three fellow snowmobilers buried in the snow as he sped away.
When the snow settled, groves of trees and rocky outcroppings that had given the videotape vital reference points were buried, complicating rescue efforts. Burke said he fears some victims were entangled in uprooted trees.