TACOMA, Wash. (AP) – Searchers have found bodies of three snowboarders missing since early December in a skiing area northeast of Mount Rainier in Washington state.

Pierce County sheriff’s spokesman Ed Troyer says friends of the three searched Saturday in the area where they disappeared.

The three missing men were 26-year-old Kevin Carter, 29-year-old Devlin Williams, and 41-year-old Phillip Hollins, all of the Seattle area.

Autopsies have not been performed, but searchers theorize the three were killed by an avalanche.

The heavy, wet snow caused dozens of avalanches in the area last year.