Nine skiers are missing following an avalanche in California’s Sierra Nevada mountains on Tuesday, authorities said, while six others who had been stranded in the snow have since been rescued.
The avalanche struck the Castle Peak area of Truckee, about 10 miles north of Lake Tahoe, at approximately 11:30 a.m. Pacific time, engulfing a group of skiers, according to a Facebook statement from the Nevada County Sheriff’s Office.
Those rescued sustained varying injuries, with two individuals requiring hospital treatment. The sheriff’s office revised the number of people in the group to 15 from an earlier estimate of 16, adding that no further updates were expected on Tuesday evening.
Authorities warned that if all nine missing skiers perish, the incident would rank among the deadliest single avalanches on record in the United States. The Colorado Avalanche Information Center has recorded six avalanche fatalities in the country so far this season, noting that avalanches have claimed an average of 27 lives each winter over the past decade.
A winter storm warning was in effect for much of northern California on Tuesday, with heavy snow forecast for the upper elevations of the Sierra Nevada. The Sierra Avalanche Center had issued an alert before dawn, warning of a “high avalanche danger” in the ski region, the sheriff’s statement said.
“I don’t think it was a wise choice,” Greene said of the decision by a ski tour company to take paying customers into the backcountry under such conditions, adding, “but we don’t know all the details yet.” He declined to name the company involved.
Rescue ski teams were dispatched from the Boreal Mountain Ski Resort and Tahoe Donner’s Alder Creek Adventure Center. Survivors had taken refuge in a makeshift shelter, partly constructed from tarpaulin sheets, and communicated with rescuers via radio beacon and text messages.
Greene declined to specify how many ski guides versus customers were among the missing. Weather conditions remained hazardous across the Sierra backcountry, with additional avalanche activity expected through Tuesday night and into Wednesday, the sheriff’s statement said.
California Governor Gavin Newsom was briefed on the incident, and state authorities were “coordinating an all-hands search-and-rescue effort” alongside local emergency teams, his office confirmed in a post on X.
Boluwatife Enome
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