Crews battled avalanche risk, storms to recover victims on Castle Peak slide

All the people were presumed dead, but rescuers didn’t want to wait another day. The risk of an avalanche hitting the area near Lake Tahoe was less than it was just days earlier, when the state’s deadliest snowslide killed nine people.

Officials also faced the threat of additional storms.

On Tuesday, search-and-rescue crews reached the rugged, ungroomed terrain near Castle Peak and retrieved six survivors from the football field-long avalanche. The snow struck 15 people — four guides and 11 clients — on an overnight backcountry skiing trip that morning.

But the threat of another slide and heavy snow forced crews to wait three days before returning to the area, a popular backcountry skiing destination about 30 miles west of Reno, Nevada.

On Friday, they saw an opportunity to go back in and get those who did not survive, Dennis Haack, a Nevada County Sheriff’s Office lieutenant who oversaw the response, said during a news conference Saturday in Truckee.

Pacific Gas and Electric Co. and California Highway Patrol officers dropped buckets of water onto the snowpack to reduce avalanche risk. The company had offered to help in what Haack said was a “pretty narrow” timeline.

“PG&E uses this type of avalanche mitigation themselves around their resources throughout the state of California, and they reached out with this as an avalanche mitigation technique, and we accepted it,” he said.

Search-and-rescue teams then entered the area.

Using a snow vehicle or skis to reach the site remained too dangerous, Haack said, so CHP officers were flown in by helicopter.

They found five people, including a person who authorities had presumed, but not yet confirmed, was dead. One by one, they were hoisted up and taken to the Frog Lake huts by a snow vehicle.

The backcountry lodge, about 10 miles west of Truckee, was where the group had spent three days enjoying its kitchen, sleeping quarters and nearby fresh powder. It was also where most of them last woke up.

Haack declined Saturday to provide certain details, including the route the group took Tuesday morning as they left the huts.

Also unclear was the decision by Blackbird Mountain Guides, which organized the trip, to travel despite conditions known to carry a high avalanche risk. Haack said investigators needed to conduct more interviews. The company is also under investigation by the state’s workplace safety organization.

Rescuers were not finished when the sun set just before 5:45 p.m. Friday. The fading light caused another delay.

Dozens of search and rescue volunteers returned to help Saturday morning.

“When we ask them to leave their houses and help their communities, they do so willingly,” said Nevada County Sheriff Shannan Moon.

So did a CHP helicopter, which removed the six person who died.

Then, the California National Guard took over. They used a military helicopter to lift the last four people from the snow.

“While we wish we could have saved them all, we are grateful that we can bring them home,” Moon said.

The final person was picked up just before 11 a.m. and taken to the huts.

There, a Nevada County deputy coroner provided official confirmation to what family and loved ones had already known: Carrie Atkin, Liz Clabaugh, Kate Morse, Caroline Sekar, Kate Vitt, Andrew Alissandratos, Michael Henry, Danielle Keatley and Nicole Choo had died.