As many as 10 skiers lacking in California avalanche

If all 10 of the lacking skiers ought to perish, the incident would rank among the many deadliest single avalanches on report within the US

LOS ANGELES, USA – As many as 10 skiers had been lacking and at the least six others had been stranded and awaiting rescue in heavy snow after an avalanche struck a backcountry slope in California’s Sierra Nevada mountains on Tuesday, February 17. authorities mentioned.

Hours after the late-morning calamity, as darkness fell and a close-by freeway was closed resulting from zero visibility within the midst of a winter storm, a spokesperson for the Nevada County Sheriff’s Workplace, Captain Russell Greene, mentioned rescue groups had but to succeed in the avalanche web site.

“It’s going to be a sluggish, tedious course of as a result of in addition they must be very cautious accessing the world resulting from the truth that the avalanche hazard continues to be very excessive,” Greene mentioned in an interview with Sacramento-based tv station KCRA-TV.

The avalanche swept the Fortress Peak space of Truckee, California, about 10 miles north of Lake Tahoe, at about 11:30 am Pacific time, engulfing a bunch of 16 skiers, in line with a Fb assertion posted by the Nevada County Sheriff’s Workplace.

The group consisted of 4 ski guides and 12 shoppers. At the very least six survived and remained on the avalanche web site awaiting rescue, whereas the others had been unaccounted for, the assertion mentioned.

‘Excessive-avalanche hazard’

If all 10 of the lacking skiers ought to perish, the incident would rank among the many deadliest single avalanches on report in the US. The Colorado Avalanche Data Middle has tallied six US avalanche fatalities up to now this season.

Avalanches have claimed a mean of 27 lives every winter in the US over the previous decade, the middle reported.

A winter storm warning was in impact for a lot of northern California on Tuesday, with heavy snow forecast within the higher elevations of the Sierra Nevada.

The Sierra Avalanche Middle had posted an alert earlier than daybreak on Tuesday, warning of a “excessive avalanche hazard” within the ski area, the sheriff’s assertion mentioned.

“I don’t suppose it was a smart alternative,” Greene mentioned of the choice of a ski tour firm to take paying clients out into the backcountry beneath such circumstances, including, “however we don’t know all the small print but.” He declined to call the corporate concerned.

Rescue ski groups had been dispatched to the avalanche zone from the Boreal Mountain Ski Resort and Tahoe Donner’s Alder Creek Journey Middle. As of about 5:15 pm PST, Greene mentioned rescuers, some driving in Snowcat tracked automobiles, had been nonetheless attempting to succeed in the avalanche zone.

He mentioned the survivors, who had been speaking with rescuers by way of radio beacon and textual content messaging, had taken refuge in a makeshift shelter, constructed partly from tarpaulin sheets, and had been “doing all the pieces they’ll to outlive.”

Greene declined to say how lots of the ski guides and what number of of their clients had been among the many lacking.

Climate circumstances remained hazardous within the Sierra backcountry slopes, with extra avalanche exercise anticipated by way of Tuesday night time and into Wednesday, in line with the sheriff’s assertion.

California Governor Gavin Newsom was briefed on the avalanche, and state authorities had been “coordinating an all-hands search-and-rescue effort” along side native emergency groups, his workplace mentioned in a posting on X. – Rappler.com