The Nevada County Sheriff’s Office said on Wednesday that eight bodies have been located in Tuesday’s avalanche north of Lake Tahoe in the Castle Peak area. Six people have been rescued, and they are still searching for the ninth victim.
Sheriff Shannon Moon said of the six rescued, one was a guide with Blackbird Mountain Guides and five of their clients who had sheltered in place, awaiting help. When the rescue team arrived, they found two of the six immobile, and they had to be carried to a snow cat. The group was able to find three members of their group before rescue teams arrived. Teams are dealing with heavy snow and “unsure conditions” as they work to retrieve the victims.
Those rescued are ages 30-55.
Sheriff Moon said there were supposed to be 16 on the trip, but one person backed out at the last minute. There were nine women and six men on the trip, four of them guides with Blackbird Mountain Guides. The guided trip into the backcountry was scheduled to be a three-day excursion to the Frog Lake cabins, and Tuesday was the return date.
This avalanche is about a mile from January’s deadly avalanche that claimed the life of a snowmobiler.
Highly skilled rescue teams from multiple agencies went into the backcountry to find those in the avalanche once the emergency calls were received. Sheriff Moon said they worked in a “slow and steady pace with gale force winds in an extremely dangerous area.” She said they had safety plans in place for rescuers as well. Over 50 people were part of the search and rescue teams that went into the area from two ends – Boreal and Tahoe Donner ski areas. People from Blackbird Mountain also assisted.
At 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, the search teams arrived on a snow cat within two miles of the area where those they knew to be alive were sheltering. They skied in the remaining two miles.
Sheriff Moon said the two people who were carried out went to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. One has since been released, and the other is still hospitalized.
This is an ongoing investigation and recovery situation, and more details will be released as they become available.
