An avalanche on Castle Peak in California has claimed the lives of eight of the nine missing skiers, and rescuers are searching for the last. A natural disaster struck the group while skiing off-piste.
Eight of the nine skiers who were missing after Tuesday’s avalanche in the area of Castle Peak in the US state of California have been found dead and one is still being searched for. This was announced on Wednesday by the Nevada County police, reports TASR with reference to the AP agency and NBC News television.
- Eight skiers died in an avalanche on Castle Peak.
- The avalanche hit a group of fifteen people, including mountain guides.
- Rescuers in the area are still searching for one skier.
- Six people survived the avalanche, two ended up in the hospital.
The avalanche hit a group of 15 people, including four mountain guides, around 11:30 a.m. local time on Tuesday. At that time, the group was returning from a three-day trip focused on backcountry skiing, i.e. skiing on ungroomed slopes outside the marked slopes.
Six people survived the fall of the avalanche, two of them were taken to the hospital. Rescuers, who were waiting for them in a wooded area, were in contact with them via satellite link. With the help of a ratrak, the rescuers got to them at a distance of 3.2 kilometers, then proceeded on skis in order not to start another avalanche.
The snowfall was extensive
Between Monday and Wednesday morning, the Tahoe Donner Weather Station in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, located about 4 miles (6.4 km) from the crash site, received about 3 inches (76 cm) of snow. The weather station is about 240 meters lower than the area where the avalanche fell, so more snow is likely to have fallen at the site of the avalanche.
It is the deadliest avalanche in the US since June 21, 1981, when ten novice climbers and one guide died while climbing Mount Rainier in Washington state.
The deadliest avalanche in the U.S. was recorded on March 1, 1910, when 96 people died after masses of snow hit two trains in Washington state that were stuck in Stevens Pass due to heavy snow.
