More than 30 people search for hiker swept away by avalanche in Cajón del Maipo

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SANTIAGO.- A group of close to 30 people, including police officers and mountaineers, have mounted an intensive search and rescue operation to find 23 year old Marco Antonio Vera Moraga after he disappeared Saturday afternoon on Cerro San Francisco -a hill that stands between 3,200 and 4,000 meters high in the Baños Morales sector of Cajón del Maipo-.

According to police captain Alexis Chamblas, the hiker was climbing the mountain with two friends when an avalanche of snow carried him between 800 and one thousand meters downhill.

After the tragedy, it took Vera's two friends 24 hours to reach the nearest patrol station in order to report what had happened.

Chamblas stated, "we have to consider the fact that this was an avalanche that fell on a person. We don't know how many meters of snow or ice there might have been and the search has proved to be quite difficult. Similar cases indicate that if the young man is dead, his body will probably not be found until summer".