Alaska State Troopers have released the identities of the two snow machiners travelling between Noatak and Kivalina. They are Jerome Onalik, age 22, and Lonnie Arnold, age 21. Both men are from the community of Noatak.
Search and Rescue located Jerome Onalik last night at about 6 pm walking along the haul road. He was reported cold but otherwise okay. Onalik reported that he and his traveling partner were separated during blizzard conditions along the mountainous portion of the trail. Arnold still has not been located.
Poor weather conditions continue to hamper search and rescue efforts and have prevented the launch of aerial assets in the search. The Northwest Arctic Borough Search and Rescue are sending more searchers into the area in an effort to locate the other rider.
The missing rider has been out for over 48 hours at the time of this article. The two men left Kivalina at 1 pm on Saturday afternoon.