It was confirmed this Wednesday that several backcountry skiers passed away in the United States.
On Tuesday, a group of 16 skiers encountered an avalanche in the Castle Peak area. The Nevada County Sheriff’s Office reported that at least nine of them went missing, which led to a rather large search and rescue operation.
“At least six of the skiers have survived the avalanche and remain at the avalanche site, awaiting rescue, with the remaining ten unaccounted for at the time of this release. The group consisted of four ski guides with 12 clients,” the Nevada County Sheriff’s Office said Tuesday.
“Highly skilled rescue ski teams have departed from both Boreal Mountain Ski Resort and Tahoe Donner’s Alder Creek Adventure Center to make their way to the six known survivors, who have been directed to shelter in place as best they can in the conditions. A SnoCat team was also launched from Alder Creek Adventure Center.”
Unfortunately, the latest update from the authorities was as tragic as it gets. Eight of the nine missing skiers have been found dead. There's one person left that remains unaccounted for.
The authorities said the search and rescue crew was working on bringing the eight dead skiers to their families. According to the Sierra Avalanche Center, the crew had to deal with a storm that dumped more than 2 inches of snow an hour in the area.
"Rescuers faced very difficult conditions, including avalanche danger themselves, according to Brandon Schwartz, director of the Sierra Avalanche Center, which forecasts avalanche conditions in the area around Lake Tahoe," per the report from ABC News. "The area saw 2 to 3 feet of new snow in the last 36 hours and more was still falling at 2 to 4 inches per hour."
Autopsies on the fallen skiers have not yet been performed. The cause of death will be announced at a later date.
Our thoughts are with everyone impacted by this tragedy.