Feb. 18 (UPI) — Eight skiers died and one is missing from a group of 15 people completing a three-day backcountry tour in California’s Tahoe National Forest when an avalanche struck, local law enforcement said Wednesday.
Local emergency services received a 911 call at 11:30 a.m. PST on Tuesday to report the avalanche in the Castle Peak area near Truckee, Calif., north of Interstate 80, Nevada County Sheriff Shannan Moon told media in a news conference.
“This is a remote, very rugged area on the north side of the freeway. It is not a groomed area. This is a backcountry area [with] very rugged terrain.”
She said the avalanche location is very close to the Pacific Crest Trail in Tahoe National Forest, and a group of 15 was completing a guided trip by Blackbird Mountain Guides.
The group included four guides and 11 clients and comprised nine women and six men, Moon said. Their ages ranged from 30 to 55.
She said the group was returning from the three-day backcountry excursion amid heavy snow and gale-force winds when the avalanche struck them.
Two “highly skilled rescue teams” made up of about 50 skilled rescuers responded from the north and south sides under what Moon called “extreme weather conditions” to locate and recover the missing skiers.
The rescue teams use tracked Snowcats to carry them to within 2 miles of the location, and the rescuers proceeded on skis from there due to the avalanche conditions.
The sheriff said the rescuers arrived at the missing group’s location just after 5:30 p.m. and found six survivors.
They were sheltered and had some equipment to stay warm and address medical issues, and some already had begun searching for their missing teammates and clients, Moon said.
The group had found three of their missing skiers, who had died, before the rescue teams arrived.
When the rescue teams showed up, Moon said two of the six surviving skiers were immobile and could not walk due to injuries, and a third was injured but mobile, so the rescuers took them 2 miles to the Snowcats to evacuate them.
Two of the three injured were in non-life-threatening condition, and one was treated and released from a local hospital.
Of the six found alive, one was a guide, and five were clients on the tour.
Eight of the additional nine skiers were found deceased, and the search team was looking for one more.
“Due to the ongoing challenges of the weather, the avalanche conditions, the effort remains ongoing,” Moon said.
Placer County Sheriff Wayne Woo said the Washoe County Sheriff’s Office and other local agencies participated in the rescue and search for the missing skier.
The Tahoe Nordic Search and Rescue team sent 28 members in two Snowcats to assist with the search-and-rescue effort, Woo told reporters.
“They are some of the highest-rated, best, most well-trained selfless servants that you will find in the county,” he said. “These are true heroes that answer the call and who selflessly serve and put themselves in harm’s way.”
One of the nine deceased skiers is the spouse of one of the team members, Woo added.
“This has not only been challenging for our community,” the sheriff said. “It’s been a challenging rescue, but it’s also been challenging emotionally for our team and our organization.”
He said they “are committed to being here until the end and making sure we have made all of the recoveries” before ending the search-and-rescue operation.
Woo asked that the public avoid the Sierras during the coming days amid recovery efforts.
The rescue team had to pull some of its members to rescue other skiers while carrying out the search for the tour group.
The Sierra Nevada Mountains’ Castle Peak is located northwest of Lake Tahoe, and Castle Peak is a 9,110-foot-tall peak in the Sierra Nevada Mountains’ Donner Summit area.
The National Weather Service issued a winter weather advisory warning of hazardous conditions with between 8 inches and a foot of snowfall in the Tahoe Basin.
Between a foot and 18 inches of snow above 7,000 feet and winds gusting up to 45 mph were expected in the Greater Lake Tahoe area.
The advisory was in effect until 10 p.m. on Thursday and affects the communities of Stateline, South Lake Tahoe, Tahoe City, Incline Village, Markleeville, Truckee and Glenbrook.
The hazardous conditions make road travel “very difficult to impossible” and cause bridges and overpasses to be “slick and hazardous.”
