California avalanche kills 8 backcountry skiers; 1 still missing
Crews in Nevada County, Northern California, found eight backcountry skiers dead near Lake Tahoe after an avalanche hit Tuesday, and authorities said Wednesday they were still searching for one person missing from the group. The avalanche occurred while the skiers were on a three-day trek in the Sierra Nevada during a powerful winter storm.
Authorities said the skiers had little time to react after the avalanche overtook them. Capt. Russell “Rusty” Greene of the Nevada County sheriff’s office said, “Someone saw the avalanche, yelled ‘Avalanche!’ and it overtook them rather quickly.”
Investigators said six survivors were rescued roughly six hours after the avalanche hit, after they had spent the night in remote backcountry terrain with emergency equipment. Moon said authorities’ mission shifted from rescuing people to recovering bodies once the group of survivors was accounted for and with one person unaccounted for.
Moon said investigators would look into the decision to proceed with the trip despite the weather outlook. She said the Sierra Avalanche Center issued an avalanche watch at 6:49 a.m. Sunday indicating that large avalanches were likely in the following 24 to 48 hours, and that hours before the avalanche hit the center increased the watch to a warning.
Greene and Moon described conditions that complicated access and recovery. The bodies were found fairly close together, Greene said, but crews had not yet been able to remove them from the mountain because of extreme weather. Rescuers said it also took time to reach the survivors before sunset on Tuesday.
Moon said the survivors had beacons that can send signals to rescuers and that at least one of the guides was able to send text messages, though officials said it was unclear whether the group was using avalanche bags, inflatable devices designed to help keep skiers near the surface. While they waited for rescue, Moon said the survivors used equipment to shelter themselves and fend off temperatures that dipped below freezing, and they found three other people who had died while they waited.
Authorities said they also used a snowcat to get within about 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) of the survivors and then skied carefully to avoid triggering another avalanche. Moon said one of the rescued remained hospitalized Wednesday, and that the sheriff’s office was waiting to release the victims’ names to give families time, as “They’re still reeling.”
The group was described as a mix of women and men between the ages of 30 and 55. School officials at Sugar Bowl Academy, a private boarding school and ski and snowboard club on Donner Summit, said some of those killed were members of the academy, but they did not release names or describe the connection.
Authorities said the storm left deep and shifting snow on the steep terrain near Donner Summit, an area known for heavy snowfall and previously restricted access. The Sierra Avalanche Center said that between 3 and 6 feet (91 centimeters to 1.8 meters) of snow fell after Sunday, and that subfreezing temperatures and gale-force winds left the snowpack unstable and unpredictable Wednesday, with the threat of more avalanches remaining.
Greene said authorities were notified by Blackbird Mountain Guides, which led the expedition, and by the skiers’ emergency beacons. He said the tour was on the last day when the avalanche struck, and that the group had spent two nights in huts. Greene also said that the tour was for intermediate-to-expert skiers and that one skier had pulled out at the last minute, leaving the trip with 15 people rather than the 16 initially believed.
In the broader context of U.S. avalanche deaths, authorities said the incident was the deadliest in the United States since 1981, when 11 climbers were killed on Mount Rainier in Washington state. They also cited that each winter, 25 to 30 people die in avalanches in the U.S., and noted it was the second deadly avalanche near California’s Castle Peak this year after a snowmobiler was buried by one in January.