Authorities expect the difficult process of recovering bodies following a fatal backcountry avalanche in California will continue into the weekend.
The avalanche occurred on the morning of Tuesday, Feb. 17 in the Castle Peak area of the Tahoe National Forest, impacting a group of 15 people who were on the final day of a three-day skiing trip, according to authorities.
Eight people have been found dead, while a ninth person remains missing, but is presumed to be deceased, Nevada County Sheriff Shannan Moon said at a press conference on Wednesday, Feb. 18.
So far, none of their bodies have been removed from the site of the slide.
The Nevada County Sheriff’s Office (NCSO) announced on Thursday, Feb. 19 that the “avalanche victims cannot be safely extracted off the mountain today,” due to what they described as “hazardous weather conditions.”
Additionally, the NCSO said the identities of the nine victims cannot be confirmed by authorities “until the recovery mission is completed.”
The nine victims still on the mountain include seven women and two men, Moon said on Wednesday.
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Barren Castle Peak, a popular backcountry skiing destination, at the top of Donner Summit in Soda Springs, California, U.S.Nina Riggio/Bloomberg via Getty
Among the victims are a group of mothers whose kids were on a ski team at the nearby Sugar Bowl Resort, The San Francisco Chronicle reported, citing a source.
Sugar Bowl Academy, a ski school affiliated with the resort, confirmed in its own statement on Wednesday that “multiple members of the Sugar Bowl Academy community and others with strong connections to Sugar Bowl, Donner Summit, and the backcountry community” were among those killed in the avalanche.
Placer County Sheriff Wayne Woo also announced at Wednesday’s press conference that one of the victims is the spouse of the Tahoe Nordic Search and Rescue team.
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The sheriff’s office later clarified that individual was not involved in the search operations following the avalanche, per Fox affiliate KTVU.
Six people survived the avalanche, including four women and two men, Moon said on Wednesday. Among the survivors was one of the four tour guides.
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“The Sheriff’s Office would like to express its continued gratitude to all of our mutual aid partners and volunteers who have worked tirelessly around the clock,” the NCSO said in its announcement on Thursday.
The NCSO went on to thank Tahoe Donner’s Alder Creek Adventure Center and Boreal Mountain Ski Resort, “both of whom opened their facilities to our teams to aid our incident command operations.”
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