The harrowing story of their fight for survival

Eight friends found joy in the mountains, skiing together on trackless powder in the quiet, untouched wilderness of California’s Sierra Nevada; their close friendship holds up against rugged, unforgiving terrain.

The trip was planned well in advance: A three-day expedition began at Frog Lake Backcountry Huts, an inaccessible but cozy oasis at 7,600 feet in the Tahoe National Forest region, accessible only by skis, snowboards or snowshoes.

The group of moms, wives, and passionate, talented skiers came from different parts of the country for a professionally guided backcountry tour over President’s Day weekend. With four guides and three others accompanying them, they glided on skis near a frozen lake and snow-covered cliffs in the shadow of a ridge lined with red firs and Jeffrey pines.

Meanwhile, the biggest winter storm of the new year loomed over the picturesque mountains as forecasters’ dire warnings echoed across social media.

It was the last day of a dangerous outback journey. And as predicted, the blizzard came, scattering unstable blankets of gunpowder. They were on their way home when fresh snow, light and fluffy, suddenly descended from the hillsides like one of nature’s wildest forces.

“Avalanche!” someone shouted.

Within seconds, a tsunami of ice, snow and football-field-sized debris rolled downhill around them, thick enough to nearly bury a house, authorities said, citing testimonies from survivors.

“The attack eluded them pretty quickly,” Nevada County Sheriff’s Capt. Rusty Greene later told reporters.

The first call for help was a silent text message from a distress signal that mobilized a small army of rescuers sent from different directions.

At 10:45 a.m. Tuesday, a voice on the fire dispatch channel said, “Get medical attention due to avalanche in the Castle Peak area.”

While emergency response teams were heard coordinating search and rescue efforts, a person stated that air support was not available due to the storm and said, “Nine to ten people are buried, and three people are trying to dig them out.”

A fight for survival that would last for hours was beginning. Some members of the group desperately dug into the snow for their friends and partners as the dust began to turn into a freezing, concrete-like crust.

Among the nine people killed or thought to have died in the attack were six of his close friends and three guides. Avalanche near Lake Tahoe, California – the country’s deadliest case in the last 45 years. Six skiers survived and were rescued.

A difficult journey to reach survivors

Among the dead were sisters Liz Clabaugh and Caroline Sekar. The others were identified by their families as Carrie Atkin, Danielle Keatley, Kate Morse and Kate Vitt. The wife of the Tahoe Nordic Search and Rescue team member who responded to the disaster was among the dead.

Families of the six women who lost their lives said in their statement that they still have “many unanswered questions.” The sheriff’s office said it is investigating whether criminal negligence contributed to the incident.

The families said, “We are devastated beyond words.” “Our focus right now is on supporting our children through this incredible tragedy and honoring the lives of these extraordinary women.”

The families requested privacy as they suffered a “sudden and profound loss.” The friends, who hailed from Idaho, the Bay Area and the nearby Truckee-Tahoe area, were “passionate, skilled skiers who loved spending time together in the mountains.” According to the statement, they had received backcountry training, trusted their guides, and had carried and become familiar with avalanche safety equipment.

The bodies of eight dead skiers remained on the icy mountainside due to harsh conditions, the sheriff’s department said. According to Moon, one more person’s identity is unknown and he is presumed dead.

“We are heartbroken and are doing our best to care for each other and our families the way we know these women would want,” the families said.

Only two members of the group of friends on the tour, a guide and two other skiers, survived.

One man and five women eventually managed to escape by hiding under a tarp for hours, “doing what they could” until rescuers arrived. snow cats According to Greene, the sky could reach them.

Sheriff Moon said rescuers were trudging through heavy snow, battling high winds in whiteout conditions and aware that another avalanche could potentially crash from above.

Rescuers were 2 miles from the skiers when their machines got stuck, forcing them to ski the rest of the way until they reached the avalanche area around 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, the sheriff said. Survivors used avalanche beacons and iPhone Emergency SOS via satellite to send messages to emergency services.

An emergency dispatcher communicated with a guide for more than four hours, relaying critical information to sheriff’s deputies, according to Don O’Keefe, chief of law enforcement for the California Office of Emergency Services.

According to experts, the number of people caught in the avalanche is very low. Inhaling within minutes creates an ice mask around the face. The snow eventually hardens like a concrete tomb.

If removed within 15 minutes Utah Avalanche Center He says 93% of avalanche victims survive. After 45 minutes, only 20% to 30% survive. Very few people can achieve this after two hours in the snow.

Survivors are collecting tent-pole-like probes and sticking them into the snow in hopes of attacking buried skiers, experts say.

That Tuesday morning, they frantically scrambled through the hardening snow for their ski buddies and friends. The sheriff said they eventually uncovered three people who were no longer alive.

“It’s a terrible thing to uncover deceased people that they knew and probably cared about,” said Nevada County Sheriff’s Deputy Sam Brown. he told CBS News.

‘A magical place’ beset by tragedies

Kurt Gensheimer was on a three-night trip at Frog Lake Backcountry Huts and left Sunday, just a few hours before moms and other skiers arrived. Their paths never crossed.

He had been there four times in the last four years and understood the appeal of the dangerous but beautiful surroundings.

“This is a magical place,” Gensheimer told CNN affiliate KCRA. “It’s one of the best places for backcountry skiing in the country, and Frog Lake Huts is arguably the finest offering for backcountry skiing in North America.”

He thought the cabins were a safe place to ride out the storm, but his group decided to leave before the snowstorm.

“The discussion in the cabins was that a big storm was coming… We’re going to have blizzard conditions. You should either be out by Monday or plan to be out by Thursday, Friday,” Gensheimer said.

Tour leaders from Blackbird Mountain Guides, the tour company that organized the ill-fated trip, said: was highly educated and has an avalanche training certificate.

He was also aware of the avalanche danger.

On Sunday morning, the same day the group began its journey, the company warned on Facebook that a major snowstorm was approaching and urged skiers to follow the Sierra Avalanche Center and “be extra careful this week.”

That morning the Sierra Avalanche Center released a statement. watch avalanche this has been raised to a level Warning at 5 a.m. on Tuesday: “There is a high avalanche danger in the village.

According to experts, the most dangerous period for avalanches is after a rapid snowfall. Tuesday’s avalanche classified According to Moon, it’s a D2.5 on a five-level scale that measures the destructive potential of moving debris.

The appeal of backcountry skiing remains despite the risks.

Nate Greenberg, who lives in the Eastern Sierra Mountains and said he survived an avalanche in 2021, advised against rushing to judgment. He said backcountry skiing involves multiple “micro decisions.”

Engineer and avalanche researcher Ian McCammon also emphasized that it is difficult to make decisions on the slopes.

“There’s often a lot more to these crashes than meets the eye,” McCammon told CNN. “When you start to get into the details, you start to understand. It’s easy to say people are stupid, or it’s easy to say people take too many risks, but sometimes they’re in situations where it’s not obvious to see how they arrived at the decision they made.”

“We’re all anxious to figure out what happened,” said Sara Boilen, a backcountry skier and clinical psychologist specializing in human factors in avalanches in Montana.

“As a researcher, I want to understand this so we can deepen our understanding of how difficult it is to make decisions in rural areas,” he told CNN. “As an educator, I want to understand so I can help others learn. As a rural user, I want to empower my own decision-making by learning from others. And as a human, I want answers—how could something like this happen? And we may never get all the answers. That’s the problem with a bad learning environment.”

He added, “Imagine losing someone you love and also losing your relationship with the place you go to to feel better. So when you lose someone in an avalanche and the place you feel most whole, most alive is in the mountains, that’s where you go to heal, what do you do?”

CNN’s Nouran Salahieh, Elizabeth Wolfe, Chris Boyette, Cindy Von Quednow, Alisha Ebrahimji, Chris Dolce, Mary Gilbert, Martin Goillandeau, Chimaine Pouteau, Stephanie Elam, Diego Mendoza, Karina Tsui, Danya Gainor, Briana Waxman, Andi Babineau and Brad Parks contributed to this report.

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