Nine skiers are still missing after an avalanche wiped out the Castle Peak area of California’s Sierra Nevada mountains. Officials said that six more missing people have been rescued.
An avalanche occurred about 10 miles north of Lake Tahoe at 11.30am on Tuesday, engulfing a group of backcountry skiers, including four guides and 11 clients.
The Nevada County Sheriff’s Office said in a Facebook post late Tuesday that the six survivors were sheltered in a makeshift shelter partially constructed of tarpaulin sheets. The office communicated with rescuers via radio beacon and text messaging.
“Due to severe weather conditions, it took several hours for rescue crews to safely reach the skiers and safely evacuate those medically evaluated by the Truckee Fire,” it said. “Two of the six skiers were transported to the hospital for treatment”.
“The search is ongoing, pending weather conditions,” the statement added. The sheriff’s office revised the number of people in the group to 15 from a previous estimate of 16.
Reports noted that if all nine missing skiers had perished, the avalanche would have been one of the deadliest single avalanches on record in the US. Conditions in the region this week, with heavy snowfall, strong winds and low visibility, created some of the worst conditions the region has experienced in years, according to scientists at the Central Sierra Snow Lab.
Ski rescue teams from Boreal Mountain Ski Resort and Tahoe’s Donners Alder Creek Adventure Center were dispatched to rescue known survivors, the Sierra Sun said. The sheriff’s office said 46 emergency first responders joined the search party.
The Colorado Avalanche Information Center has counted six US avalanche deaths so far this season. Avalanches have killed an average of 27 people in the US over the past decade, it said.
Snowfall near Truckee, Calif., on Tuesday came during a winter storm warning for much of Northern California, with heavy snow forecast for the high elevations of the Sierra Nevada. According to Soda Springs Mountain Resort, the town of Soda Springs, near where the avalanche occurred, saw at least 30 inches of snow in a 24-hour period.
Rapidly accumulating snow and gusty winds created treacherous conditions on fragile snowpack layers.
The Sierra Avalanche Center posted an alert early Tuesday morning, warning of “high avalanche danger” in the ski area, the sheriff’s office said. The center has listed five other avalanche incidents so far this season that have claimed six lives.
“It’s very dangerous in the backcountry right now because we’re in the height of the storm,” Brandon Schwartz, Tahoe National Forest lead avalanche forecaster at the Sierra Avalanche Center, told The Associated Press.
The skiers were on the last day of a three-day backcountry skiing trek and had contact with people in the area, said Steve Reynaud, a Tahoe National Forest avalanche forecaster with the Sierra Avalanche Center.
Reynaud told the AP that the skiers spent two nights at the huts, carrying all food and supplies up to 4 miles to navigate “tough mountain terrain” on the trip.
Nevada County Sheriff’s Capt. Russell Green said authorities were notified of the avalanche by the ski tour company that led the trip.
“I don’t think it’s a smart choice,” Green told the AP of the ski company’s decision to take paying customers into the backcountry under such circumstances, “but we don’t know all the details yet.”
Reuters reports that the area around Castle Peak, a 9,110-foot mountain north of Donner Summit, is a popular backcountry skiing destination. The peak is named for the infamous Donner Party, a group of pioneers who resorted to cannibalism after being trapped there during the winter of 1846-1847.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom has been briefed on the avalanche and state officials are “coordinating an all-hands search and rescue effort” with local emergency teams, the governor’s office said in X.
