CALIFORNIA:

Eight backcountry skiers were confirmed killed and a ninth was presumed to have perished when their tour group was overtaken by a football-field-sized avalanche in California’s Sierra Nevada mountains on Tuesday, in the deadliest US avalanche in 45 years, authorities said.

Six survivors were rescued after search teams on skis fought through blinding snow, darkness, treacherous terrain and gale-force winds to reach them in the rugged Castle Peak area near Truckee, California, about 10 miles (16 km) northwest of Lake Tahoe.

The group of 15 skiers, including four guides from outfitter Blackbird Mountain Guides, was heading back to a trailhead in heavy snow after a three-day excursion when the avalanche struck around 11:30 am PT on Tuesday.

The surviving skiers, who took refuge in a makeshift shelter constructed partly from tarpaulin sheets after the avalanche, used emergency beacons and text messaging to communicate their location to rescuers. One of the guides was among the survivors, Nevada County Sheriff Shannan Moon said at a press conference.

Two rescue teams totaling about 50 people were dispatched from the Boreal Mountain Ski Resort and the Tahoe Donner resort’s Alder Creek Adventure Center and approached the avalanche zone from the south and north.

High risk of avalanche

The rescuers themselves faced life-threatening conditions, with the risk of further avalanches still high after a winter storm dropped several feet of fresh, unstable snow in recent days.

Responders were able to get within two miles (3.2 km) of the avalanche site on a snowcat vehicle, then switched to skis to lessen the risk of triggering another deadly slide.

“Extreme weather conditions, I would say, is an understatement,” said Moon, whose office helped oversee the search mission.

An adjacent stretch of the US Interstate 80 highway had been closed during the rescue operation due to zero visibility from the storm.