02/18/26 01:17:00
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02/18 13:16 CST Eight backcountry skiers found dead and 1 still missing after
California avalanche
Eight backcountry skiers found dead and 1 still missing after California
avalanche
By BROOKE HESS-HOMEIER, JULIE WATSON and JOHN SEEWER
Associated Press
TRUCKEE, Calif. (AP) --- Eight backcountry skiers have been found dead and 1
remains missing after an avalanche near Lake Tahoe in California, officials
said, making it the deadliest avalanche in the U.S. in more than four decades.
Nevada County Sheriff Shannan Moon announced the deaths at a news conference
Wednesday.
Search and rescue crews were dispatched to the Castle Peak area of the Sierra
Nevada after a 911 call Tuesday afternoon reporting an avalanche had buried 15
skiers. Six of them have been found alive.
It is the deadliest avalanche in the U.S. since 1981, when 11 climbers were
killed on Mount Rainier, Washington.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP's earlier story follows below.
Crews faced treacherous conditions Wednesday in their search for nine
backcountry skiers still missing a day after an avalanche in the mountains near
Lake Tahoe. Six others were found alive and rescued.
The group was on a three-day trek in Northern California's Sierra Nevada on
Tuesday morning when the avalanche occurred as a monster winter storm pummeled
the West Coast.
Two of those rescued after several hours of searching were taken to a hospital
for treatment, said Ashley Quadros, a spokesperson for the Nevada County
Sheriff's Office. Heavy snow and the threat of additional avalanches slowed the
rescue effort in the mountains near Castle Peak, northwest of Lake Tahoe.
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 35 feet (10 meters) 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.
The Sierra Avalanche Center warned Wednesday that the risk of avalanche remains
high and advised against travel in the area. Multiple feet of snowfall and gale
force winds in recent days left the snowpack unstable and unpredictable, and
more snow was predicted to fall, the center said.
Nevada County Sheriff Capt. Russell 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.
Reaching the huts in winter takes several hours and requires backcountry
skills, avalanche training and safety equipment, the land trust says on its
website.
Blackbird Mountain Guides said in a statement said the group, including four
guides, was returning to the trailhead when the avalanche occurred.
"Our thoughts are with the missing individuals, their families, and first
responders in the field," Blackbird said in a statement Wednesday. The company
said it is helping authorities in the search.
Several Tahoe ski resorts had been fully or partially closed due to the
weather. Resorts, which use controlled explosions and barriers to manage
avalanche threats, were not expected to be at as high of a risk as the
backcountry, the center said.
The area near Donner Summit was closed for nearly a century before the land
trust and its partners in 2020 acquired Frog Lake, which is framed by
1,000-foot-high (300-meter-high) cliffs. Donner Summit is named for the
infamous Donner Party, a group of pioneers who resorted to cannibalism after
getting trapped there in the winter of 1846-1847.
In January, an avalanche in the region buried a snowmobiler and killed him,
authorities said. Each winter, 25 to 30 people die in avalanches in the U.S.,
according to the National Avalanche Center.
___
Watson reported from San Diego and Seewer from Toledo, Ohio. Associated Press
writers Audrey McAvoy in Honolulu and Olga Rodriguez in San Francisco
contributed.
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