New details of the catastrophic Lake Tahoe-area avalanche — including a never-before-seen image of the mountain where the tragedy occurred — have emerged a week after nine skiers lost their lives in the snowslide.
The Sierra Avalanche Center released photos of the site at Castle Peak and information that sheds light on the frantic, days-long rescue effort.
A group of 15 backcountry skiers were below Perry’s Peak around 11:30 a.m. on Feb. 17 when a powerful “storm slab” broke loose on a north to northwest-facing slope at 8,260 feet, the center reported.
The avalanche — classified as “large” on the danger scale — ran roughly 400 vertical feet to the bottom of the path, completely burying 12 of the 15 skiers.
The center released a series of incident reports, maps and dramatic images from the scene, laying out the timeline for one of the deadliest avalanches in California history.
Search and rescue teams reached the remote scene of the disaster later last Tuesday afternoon, working as darkness fell in high-intensity storm conditions. Members of the party who were not buried were able to dig out three individuals before professional rescuers arrived.
Crews excavated eight of the nine deceased victims that first night while evacuating six survivors under their own power to Frog Lake Huts, where they were later transported for medical care, according to the report.
After the storm subsided, avalanche mitigation operations were carried out on Feb. 20 using PG&E helicopters equipped with roughly 5,500-pound, 660-gallon water buckets. The buckets were placed and dragged across the slope and used for full-load water drops in multiple areas to stabilize the snowpack.
Following those efforts, rescuers were able to recover five additional bodies and locate another buried before nightfall. Rescue operations concluded on Feb. 21 with the retrieval of the final four victims.
The tragedy in Castle Peak stunned the tight-knit mountain community.
The guiding company leading the tour, Blackbird Mountain Guides, confirmed the “devastating loss” of guides Andrew Alissandratos, Niki Choo and Mike Henry.
Six mothers who were part of a close group of friends — Carrie Atkin, Kate Morse, Danielle Keatley, Kate Vitt and sisters Caroline Sekar and Liz Claubaugh — also died in the avalanche.
Their families later released a joint statement honoring the women.
The Nevada County Sheriff’s Office publicly identified all nine victims on Saturday, as mourners gathered for a vigil in downtown Truckee.
Only one of the six survivors has been publicly identified: Jim Hamilton, who was rescued nearly six hours after the snowslide.
“I thought I had lost you forever,” his wife, Beth Hamilton, wrote in a Facebook post. “The not knowing whether you survived was a pain I cannot put into words.”