SEATTLE, Wash. — Rachelle Brown's voice broke just a little as she told us about her intrepid daughter, Bailey Meola, and friend, Sydney Schumacher. They are both 19, trekking Nepal's popular Langtang Valley trail, alone, more than 7,000 miles away.
"You know we want to do what we can to try to find them," said Rachelle Brown.
Sydney's mother spoke to her using Face time more than a week ago.
"She was showing us all of the things that she had purchased for the trip including a big bag of peanuts," said Diane Schumacher. "Which now gives me they have enough to eat."
But on their way back, a massive earthquake struck Nepal and triggered a monster avalanche that buried entire villages, including Langtang, the village they were to pass through.
Paul Schumacher, who took the same journey three years ago when he was 19, said the trek "takes about three to four days depending on how fast you're trekking."
Now all he can do is guess where his baby sister might be.
"We're thinking they're somewhere in between the Lama Hotel and Kyanjin Gompa," said Schumacher.
He was asked if Langtang is pretty close to where they might have been as they came back.
"Unfortunately, yes," he replied.
But their families insist, Meola and Schumacher are lifelong outdoor adventurers, with the experience and maturity to survive.
"We know that our girls took a risk, going up into this area to travel," said Rachelle Brown, Bailey's mother. "But that doesn't mean that they deserve to be abandoned."
Paul Schumacher says he is eager to travel to Katmandu to look for his sister.
But for now only those on humanitarian missions are being allowed into the country.