Tragedy struck near Lake Tahoe as an avalanche has left eight people confirmed dead, with one skier still unaccounted for.
Nevada County Sheriff Shannan Moon provided an update on Wednesday, one day after the accident, detailing the situation.
According to Sheriff Moon, the avalanche entangled four tour guides and 11 guests. From this group, six individuals—one man and five women, aged between 30 and 55—were rescued. Sadly, eight of the nine others were confirmed deceased, with one still missing.
The avalanche occurred while the group was on a three-day expedition with Blackbird Mountain Guides. Rescuers managed to locate and save six individuals after emergency beacons were activated.
These six skiers had been sheltering under a tarp on Tuesday and have since descended the mountain. Two of them required hospitalization following the incident.
Rescue efforts to locate the nine remaining missing skiers faced significant challenges due to nearly two feet of fresh snow in the area as of Wednesday morning.
At the Boreal/Castle Peak trailhead, where the avalanche struck around 11:30 a.m. Tuesday, there were no visible signs of rescue activity. The night prior, mountain rescue teams had initiated a substantial operation to find those trapped, but they struggled with harsh conditions that obstructed access to certain areas.
Soda Springs, located near the avalanche site, recorded approximately two feet of snow in the last 24 hours. Reports indicate that roads around Truckee were nearly deserted.
In some places, snowdrifts have reached up to five feet high.
There is evidence suggesting that the company responsible for the tour, Blackbird Mountain Guides, was aware of the hazardous conditions. A video showed a tour guide carefully probing the snow by hand, accompanied by a troubling caption warning about a weak layer that could lead to unpredictable avalanches.
The tour group was near Castle Peak on Tuesday morning when the avalanche resulted in the tragic loss of 11 customers and four guides.
The group had just completed a three-day retreat at a remote cabin by Frog Lake in the Castle Peak region.
The avalanche, which took place at about 8,200 feet elevation near Frog Lake, was rated a 2.5 on a five-point scale of destructiveness by the Sierra Avalanche Center.
Such avalanches can span lengths equivalent to a football field and have the potential to severely injure, bury, or kill individuals under more than six feet of snow.
