Heavy snowfall around Lake Tahoe has kept the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office Search and Rescue Team busy, most recently having rescued six skiers on Sunday just outside the boundaries of Heavenly Mountain Resort.
According to a news release, search and rescue was dispatched at about 1 p.m. for a lost 16-year-old snowboarder in the Palisades area, off Lower Kingsbury Grade in Stateline.
The teen called 911 with their cell phone to report they had unintentionally snowboarded out of bounds at Heavenly when his visibility was affected because of heavy snowfall and didn’t know how to get out of area, according to the news release.
Search and rescue responded with 18 volunteers and formed several snowshoe and snowmobile teams, and a tracked Sno-Cat to search the area where the teen was believed to be lost. After about an hour of searching, team members located the lost 16-year-old, as well as four other lost and disoriented skiers/snowboarders. All five subjects were transported to safety, the news release stated.
Later that same day at about 5 p.m., Douglas Search and Rescue was called out to search for a 19 year-old skier trapped on the mountainside near Heavenly’s gondola. The skier had intentionally skied out of bounds, and had mistakenly run into a tree well, causing his skies and legs to become entangled in branches, trapping him to the point that he was unable to free himself. The skier called 911 via cell phone to request emergency assistance, according to the news release.
This was a high-priority call for DCSAR due to continued heavy snowfall, a rapidly approaching nightfall, and the potential of having a fallen skier lying wet and injured in the snow throughout the night, according to the news statement.
Search and Rescue quickly remobilized their rescue team and began a new search for the trapped man. Because of the steep terrain and heavy snowpack in the area where the man was believed to be trapped, the search and rescue team was able to access the area only by snowshoe, the news release stated.
The teams located the man and began extrication and providing emergency medical aid. He was taken to Barton Memorial Hospital for additional medical treatment.
