Eight skiers died in an avalanche in California’s Sierra Nevada mountains while one remains missing, authorities said yesterday, making the incident one of the deadliest single avalanches in US history.
Rescuers reached six survivors, including one man and five women, late on Tuesday amid an intense winter storm that has dropped several feet of fresh snow on the high Sierra in recent days.
The avalanche swept the Castle Peak area of Truckee, California, about 16km north of Lake Tahoe on Tuesday, engulfing a group of backcountry skiers.
One of the rescued skiers is still being treated in a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, Nevada County Sheriff Shannan Moon said at a Press conference yesterday.
The survivors had taken refuge in a makeshift shelter, constructed partly from tarpaulin sheets, and communicated with rescuers via radio beacon and text messaging.
About 50 skilled rescuers were dispatched from the south and north and faced “extreme” conditions, Moon said, including blinding snow and gale-force winds.
A team was able to use a snowcat vehicle to get within 3km of the survivors and then ski to the accident site.
One of the deceased skiers was married to a member of the area’s search-and-rescue team, authorities said.
The group of skiers was finishing a three-day excursion with Blackbird Mountain Guides.
The tour group included four guides and 11 clients, who stayed at the Frog Lake Backcountry Huts located near Donner Summit just northwest of Truckee, at about 7,500 feet elevation.
In a typical winter, the mountain receives more than 400 inches of snow, making it one of the snowiest places in the western hemisphere.
Blackbird was founded in 2020 and operates in California, Washington state and British Columbia as well as numerous popular skiing spots abroad, according to its website.
The company provides guided ski trips, alpine climbing trips and avalanche education.
Avalanches have claimed an average of 27 lives each winter in the US over the past decade.
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