Crews found the bodies of eight backcountry skiers and are searching for one more missing person following an avalanche near Lake Tahoe, authorities said on Wednesday.
Crews faced treacherous conditions during the search after the avalanche struck Tuesday morning. Search and rescue crews were dispatched to the Castle Peak area of the Sierra Nevada after a 911 call reporting the avalanche had buried 15 skiers.
Six backcountry skiers were rescued earlier and two were taken to a hospital for treatment, said Ashley Quadros, a spokesperson for the Nevada County Sheriff’s Office.
“We did have conversation with the families of the folks that are still outstanding and let them know that our mission… went from a rescue to a recovery,” Nevada County Sheriff Shannan Moon told reporters. “It’s a difficult conversation to have with loved ones.”
Moon said there was a total of 11 people missing — nine women and six men — with a total of the 15 people on a guided tour.
“We were able to rescue one man and five women so the survivors ranging in ages from 30 to 55 years of age,” she said. “Eight of the additional nine additional skiers have been located deceased. We are still looking for one of the members at this time. Due to ongoing challenges of the weather, the avalanche conditions the effort remains ongoing as well as our search for the remaining skier but the weather is a factor.”
The bodies of the eight were fairly close together, Nevada County Sheriff Capt. Russell Greene said. Three of those who died were guides on the trip. The crews have not yet been able to remove the victims from the mountain because of the extreme conditions, the sheriff said.
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Moon said there are “safety conditions for our response teams” due to the weather.
“Of the two that were injured, one individual was stabilized last night and released. One is still being treated at the hospital. I’ve been told both subjects are non-life threatening injuries,” she added.
Blackbird Mountain Guides, the company that organized the three-day backcountry skiing trip, has been “very cooperative,” according to Moon.
“They provided us with the individual information from their trip. They also had members arrive at our location when we deployed into the field and they responded with us. They wanted to do everything that they could to assist,” she said.
Moon said that the causes of death cannot be confirmed yet.
“We still have to get to the decedents. We still have to be able to identify those decedents and then we will determine through contract with Placer County. We contract with them for all of our pathology. That should take some time to determine mechanism of injury and truly the cause of death for these individuals,” Moon added.
Greene said authorities were notified about the avalanche by Blackbird Mountain Guides, which was leading the expedition, and the skiers’ emergency beacons. The sheriff’s office said Tuesday night that 15 backcountry skiers had been on the trip, not 16 as initially believed.
The skiers were on the last day of a backcountry skiing trip and had spent two nights in the huts, said Steve Reynaud, an avalanche forecaster with the Sierra Avalanche Center. He said the area requires navigating rugged mountainous terrain. All food and supplies need to be carried to the huts.
Rescuers used a snowcat to get within 3.2 kilometres of the survivors, then skied in carefully so they didn’t set off another avalanche, the sheriff said.
The area near Donner Summit is one of the snowiest places in the Western Hemisphere and until just a few years ago was closed to the public. It sees an average of nearly 10 metres of snow a year, according to the Truckee Donner Land Trust, which owns a cluster of huts where the group was staying near Frog Lake.
Blackbird Mountain Guides said the group, including four guides, was returning to the trailhead when the avalanche occurred.
“The Nevada County Sheriff’s Office has informed Blackbird Mountain Guides they will be taking the lead on all direct communications and status updates from this point to ensure families rapidly receive the most current details. The leadership team at Blackbird Mountain Guides remains fully engaged in assisting the Search and Rescue efforts on the ground as we navigate this incredibly difficult situation alongside those involved,” Blackbird said in a statement Tuesday.
This is the deadliest avalanche in modern U.S. history, since an incident in Mount Rainier, Washington in 1981, when a major icefall avalanche killed 11 climbers including 1 guide and 10 clients.
— with files from The Associated Press
Missguided
“one of the snowiest places in the Western Hemisphere and until just a few years ago was closed to the public”
Maybe a reconsideration is in order …