Deadliest U.S. Avalanche in Decades Leaves Eight Dead, One Missing
San Francisco Chronicle
(TNS)
Feb. 18—Eight of the nine people reported missing after a massive avalanche roughly the size of a football field struck a guided backcountry ski group near Lake Tahoe were confirmed dead Wednesday, Nevada County authorities said, making the incident one of the deadliest U.S. avalanches in decades. The ninth person was presumed to have died.
The victims were three professional guides and six of their clients, who were returning Tuesday after spending two nights at the remote Frog Lake ski huts in the Castle Peak area, north of Interstate 80 near Donner Summit. Six people in the 15-member group — five clients and one guide — survived and were rescued after a major operation Tuesday afternoon and into the night.
Most of the guests being guided through difficult terrain in a winter storm were women and mothers of children on the ski team at nearby Sugar Bowl Resort, a person familiar with Tuesday's tragedy told the Chronicle.
The person, who requested anonymity due to the sensitivity of the situation, said the trip was part of what had historically been an annual excursion of families in which the husbands would go off skiing together and then the wives would take their turn. The trips were not affiliated with Sugar Bowl and were organized by the close-knit parents.
The identities of the deceased skiers were not released Wednesday as their bodies remained in the slide area and next of kin had not been notified, officials said. Of the nine confirmed or presumed dead, seven were women. Of the six survivors, two were women.
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A spokesperson for Sugar Bowl, Rachel Soeharto, declined to comment Wednesday.
"We cannot provide comment on this matter; please direct any inquiries to the Nevada County Sheriff's Department, who are handling the situation and can provide verified updates," Soeharto said.
Sheriff Shannan Moon said the Nevada County dispatch center received a 911 call reporting the avalanche at 11:30 a.m. Tuesday near Castle Peak, "a very remote rugged area" that is "not a groomed area or a ski resort area," but backcountry terrain in Tahoe National Forest near the Pacific Crest Trail.
Moon said the group was on a guided three-day trip run by Blackbird Mountain Guides of Truckee. One client backed out at the last minute, she said. The party spent two nights at the Frog Lake ski huts and was returning to the trailhead on its third day when the avalanche hit, Moon said.
The six people who survived were located Tuesday evening after sheltering under a tarp during intense snowfall, Moon said. Two were injured and were taken out by snowcat. They were hospitalized but were expected to survive.
"Extreme weather conditions, I would say, is an understatement," Moon said, describing gale-force winds, heavy snow and whiteout visibility.
Rescue teams reached the area shortly after 5:30 p.m., but a snowcat — a specialized vehicle equipped with treads — was only able to get to about two miles short of the site due to the avalanche danger, and rescuers skied the rest of the way, Moon said.
California Office of Emergency Services law enforcement chief Don O'Keefe said his personnel were "communicating with one of the guides for over a four-hour period" by text, relaying information to Nevada County as rescuers mobilized.
Moon said the survivors began searching for missing members of their group and located three bodies before rescuers arrived. Capt. Rusty Greene, the incident commander for the initial response, said the ski group was "fairly close together" when the slide happened.
"It was reported to us ... that they were attempting to go out as a group, that someone saw the avalanche, yelled avalanche, and it overtook them rather quickly," Greene said.
One of the injured skiers was released from the hospital Tuesday night and the other was expected to be released Wednesday.
Moon said that her office has been in contact with the guide company about its decision to proceed with the trip despite forecasts warning of high avalanche danger. Blackbird, she said, was cooperating with officials, providing its trip manifest and other information. The avalanche warning was issued Tuesday morning, while forecasts of the major blizzard had begun to take shape last week.
"The backcountry, it's beautiful. There's not a lot of people out there, and that's where a lot of people like to recreate," Moon said. "I myself like to recreate in that area. But Mother Nature, it doesn't seem to matter."
The Sierra Avalanche Center confirmed a large avalanche on a north-facing slope near 8,200 feet and classified it as a D2.5 slide — powerful enough to cause serious injury or death. Chris Feutrier, supervisor of the Tahoe National Forest, said the avalanche was about a football field in length and resulted when a persistent weak layer failed under a heavy load of new snow.
"That persistent weak layer is still there and has reloaded with another three feet of snow," Feutrier said Wednesday. "The hazard remains high."
Moon said search teams moved the bodies to a single marked area in the avalanche zone to facilitate removal when conditions allowed.
Greene said that steep, "vertical" terrain and storm conditions meant crews were only able to remove the survivors who needed medical care Tuesday night, and that "the actual decedents are still located in the avalanche area."
Moon said the operation had shifted "from a rescue to a recovery."
"Due to the ongoing challenges of the weather, the avalanche conditions, the effort remains ongoing as well as our search for the remaining skier," Moon said, adding that weather and safety were the biggest constraints to locate the person's body.
Placer County Sheriff Wayne Woo said Tahoe Nordic Search and Rescue deployed two snowcats and 28 team members to assist. He said the incident was personal for that group: One of the dead was the spouse of a Tahoe Nordic team member.
Greene said there was no roadway into the search area and it must be accessed by snowcat, snowmobile or skis. Moon noted the avalanche was about a mile from a fatal slide in the same Castle Peak area in early January.
Hardy Bullock, the Nevada County supervisor who represents the area, said roughly 90 people were involved in the search Tuesday night. With the storm continuing, he said, "It would likely be a body recovery and not a rescue."
The avalanche was the deadliest in the nation since 1981, when 11 climbers were killed on Mount Rainier, according to the Colorado Avalanche Center, which tracks data back to circa 1950.
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