Eight skiers have been confirmed dead with one still missing after a devastating avalanche struck near Lake Tahoe in California’s Sierra Nevada mountains on Wednesday (February 18).
Nevada County Sheriff Shannan Moon provided the grim update during a press conference, confirming that of the 15 people caught in Tuesday’s avalanche, six survivors had been rescued while eight bodies were recovered. Search efforts continue for the one remaining missing person.
“This is one of the more major cases our agency has been involved with in the last several years,” Sheriff Moon said during the briefing. The avalanche occurred around 11:30 a.m. PST on Tuesday in the Castle Peak area near Truckee.
The group, consisting of 11 clients and four guides from Blackbird Mountain Guides, was on the final day of a three-day backcountry skiing expedition when disaster struck. They had been staying at the remote Frog Lake huts since February 15 and were returning to the trailhead when the avalanche hit.
Among the six survivors – one man and five women ranging in age from 30 to 55 – two required hospitalization with non-life-threatening injuries. One has since been released while the other remains under treatment.
Sheriff Moon revealed that one of the confirmed fatalities was the spouse of a search and rescue team member, making the recovery effort particularly challenging for the rescue crews. “I can’t imagine the questions they have and the stress they are going through,” she said regarding the families of the victims.
Rescue efforts were severely hampered by what officials described as “extreme weather conditions” – an understatement according to Sheriff Moon. Nearly two feet of snow fell in the area over 24 hours, with snow drifts as high as five feet in some places.
The avalanche occurred despite warnings from the Sierra Avalanche Center, which had rated the avalanche danger as four out of five, indicating “high danger” in the backcountry. The center had warned that “natural avalanches are likely, and human-triggered avalanches large enough to bury or injure people are very likely.”
Blackbird Mountain Guides appears to have been aware of the dangerous conditions. Just two days before the avalanche, the company posted a video on Facebook showing a guide sifting through snow with his hands, captioned: “This weak layer could lead to some unpredictable avalanches!”
The Sierra Avalanche Center measured the avalanche at 2.5 on a 5-point scale of destructive size – powerful enough to bury or kill a person under more than 6 feet of snow.
An avalanche warning remains in effect for the greater Lake Tahoe area through Thursday morning, with officials urging the public to avoid the Sierras, mountain travel, and backcountry areas while the weather remains hazardous.
“Widespread areas of unstable snow and numerous avalanches are expected,” the Sierra Avalanche Center warned.
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