By Rich McKay
Feb 18 (Reuters) - Eight skiers died in an avalanche in California's Sierra Nevada mountains while one remains missing, authorities said on Wednesday, making the incident one of the deadliest single avalanches in U.S. history.
Rescuers reached six survivors, including one man and five women, late on Tuesday amid an intense winter storm that has dropped several feet of fresh snow on the high Sierra in recent days.
The avalanche swept the Castle Peak area of Truckee, California, about 10 miles north of Lake Tahoe, around 11:30 a.m. Pacific time on Tuesday, engulfing a group of backcountry skiers.
One of the rescued skiers is still being treated in a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, Nevada County Sheriff Shannan Moon said at a press conference on Wednesday afternoon.
The survivors had taken refuge in a makeshift shelter, constructed partly from tarpaulin sheets, and communicated with rescuers via radio beacon and text messaging.
About 50 skilled rescuers were dispatched from the south and north and faced "extreme" conditions, Moon said, including blinding snow and gale-force winds. A team was able to use a snowcat vehicle to get within two miles of the survivors and then ski to the accident site.
One of the deceased skiers was married to a member of the area's search-and-rescue team, authorities said.
The group of skiers was finishing a three-day excursion with Blackbird Mountain Guides. The tour group included four guides and 11 clients, who stayed at the Frog Lake Backcountry Huts located near Donner Summit just northwest of Truckee, at about 7,500 feet elevation (2,300 meters).
In a typical winter, the mountain receives more than 400 inches of snow, making it one of the snowiest places in the western hemisphere.
Blackbird was founded in 2020 and operates in California, Washington state and British Columbia as well as numerous popular skiing spots abroad, according to its website. The company provides guided ski trips, alpine climbing trips and avalanche education.
The Sierra Avalanche Center's avalanche warning, which it issued on Tuesday, remained in effect on Wednesday morning. "HIGH avalanche danger might continue through the day on Wednesday," the agency said.
Avalanches have claimed an average of 27 lives each winter in the United States over the past decade, according to the Colorado Avalanche Information Center, which had tallied six U.S. avalanche fatalities so far this season.
(Reporting by Rich McKay; Additional reporting by Brad Brooks, Steve Gorman and Devika Nair; Writing by Joseph Ax; Editing by Nick Zieminski)
