10 skiers missing after devastating avalanche near Lake Tahoe as rescue teams desperately search for survivors

Ten backcountry skiers are unaccounted for after an avalanche struck near Lake Tahoe on Tuesday while heavy snow fell in the area.

The group of skiers, which included four guides and 12 clients, were in the Sierra Nevada’s Castle Peak area near Truckee, California when the avalanche erupted at around 11.30am, the Nevada County Sheriff’s Office announced.

It occurred at an elevation of roughly 8,200 feet and was rated D2.5, indicating a ‘large’ to ‘very large’ slide capable of burying or seriously injuring a person, the Sierra Avalanche Center reported. 

At least six skiers survived, but were awaiting rescue on Tuesday afternoon as authorities told them to shelter in place. The remaining 10 were unaccounted for.

Nearly 50 first responders are now scouring the area to reach the survivors and find the missing skiers. A SnoCat team was also launched as part of the search and rescue mission.

They had arrived at Sierra Nevada on Sunday and had been set to check out on Tuesday from the Frog Lake Huts, a backcountry lodge run by the Truckee Donner Land Trust, Steve Reynaud, an avalanche forecaster with the Sierra Avalanche Center told the Press-Democrat. 

The land trust notes on its website that usual routes to and from the lodge have ‘some degree of avalanche hazard,’ and Reynaud said it appeared the group was heading toward the Castle Peak trailhead near the Boreal ski area, next to Interstate-80.

That trek, he said, passes through ‘numerous avalanche hazards.’

‘An avalanche burying seven to 10 people would be a very large avalanche, or a group being in a bad location, or potentially both,’ Reynaud said.  

It is likely that the group carried snow probes and shovels to be prepared in case of an avalanche, Reynaud suggested.

Still, he said, ‘As soon as you have more than one person or multiple people buried, it becomes a much more difficult rescue.’ 

If a buried person is not dug out within 10 to 15 minutes, ‘survival drops off pretty quickly.’ 

Making matters worse, the Nevada County Sheriff’s Office warned that conditions remain ‘highly dangerous,’ with an avalanche warning remaining in effect through Wednesday as the rapidly accumulating snowfall piled onto already fragile snowpack layers amid gale-force winds.

The remoteness of the site where the group is stranded has also hampered the official rescue response, Reynaud said.

‘There’s not an easy way for search and rescue or outside help to get there,’ he said. ‘Even getting rescue personnel to the location to start with has been a major challenge.

‘With the weather right now, conditions are not just dangerous, but hard to get around in the backcountry with all this new snow and wind,’ Reynaud said, adding that the dangerous conditions have made a helicopter rescue impossible.  

Interstate-80 even had to be closed in both directions through the Sierra on Tuesday morning, before it reopened for vehicles with tire-chain controls at 2.30pm. 

The treacherous conditions have already led several ski resorts around Lake Tahoe to fully or partially close.

The resorts have avalanche mitigation programs and were not expected to be at as high of a risk as the backcountry where travel in, near, or below the avalanche terrain was strongly discouraged, the Sierra Avalanche Center of the Tahoe National Forest said.

‘It’s particularly dangerous in the backcountry right now just because we’re at the height of the storm,’ said Brandon Schwartz, Tahoe National Forest lead avalanche forecaster at the center.

The National Weather Service has implemented a winter storm warning, which remains in effect through 10pm Thursday for the entire Sierra Nevada range.

The service warned that elevations above 3,500 feet could see four to eight feet of snow by the end of the storm. 

The Nevada County Sheriff’s Office is leading the response and is being assisted by Nevada County Search and Rescue, the Placer County Sheriff’s Office, Tahoe Nordic Search and Rescue, the Washoe County Sheriff’s Office, Washoe County Search and Rescue, and Truckee Fire.