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Six Rescued, Nine Missing After Avalanche Strikes Blackbird Guides Near Lake Tahoe

Six Rescued, Nine Missing After Avalanche Strikes Blackbird Guides Near Lake Tahoe
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Six backcountry skiers were rescued and nine others remained missing Tuesday night after a large avalanche swept a guided group near Castle Peak, northwest of Lake Tahoe, during a powerful Sierra Nevada winter storm abc7news +1. The slide hit late Tuesday morning at about 8,200 feet elevation near Perry Peak above Donner Summit, triggering a multi-agency rescue effort in whiteout conditions sfchronicle +1.

Authorities said a 911 call reporting people buried in an avalanche came in around 11:30 a.m. as the group returned from backcountry huts near Frog Lake, a popular but avalanche-prone ski destination above Truckee abc7news +2. The outing was led by Truckee-based Blackbird Mountain Guides; officials said the group included four guides and 11 clients, though earlier reports varied between 15 and 16 people total pbs +2.

Harsh Weather, High Risk and a Race Against Time

Reaching survivors took several hours as rescuers battled heavy snow, gale-force winds and near-zero visibility that made helicopter deployment impossible and raised fears of secondary slides sfchronicle +2. About 46 responders, including highly trained ski-rescue teams, moved in from Boreal Mountain and Tahoe Donner’s Alder Creek center, supported by snowcats to ferry personnel and equipment into the backcountry sfchronicle +2.

Six people were eventually found alive sheltering under a tarp; all were brought out with varying injuries and at least two were transported to a hospital, the Nevada County Sheriff’s Office said sfchronicle +1. “Due to extreme weather conditions, it took several hours for rescue personnel to safely reach the skiers and transport them to safety. The search is ongoing, pending weather conditions,” the agency said in a late-day statement mercurynews. Governor Gavin Newsom said he had been briefed and pledged an “all-hands search and rescue effort” as the operation extended into the night kcra.

Guides, Warnings and Backcountry Decisions

The avalanche struck amid one of the most intense storms of the season, with some Sierra locations reporting snowfall rates of 3–4 inches per hour and 30–40 inches already on the ground since Monday; forecasters warned that 4–8 feet could accumulate at higher elevations, driven by 45–55 mph gusts nytimes +2. The Sierra Avalanche Center had rated the day’s danger as “High” — the second-highest level — and cautioned that both natural and human-triggered large avalanches were likely, specifically advising against travel on or below avalanche terrain abc7news +2.

Blackbird Mountain Guides said the party had been on a three-day trip to the Frog Lake huts and that its “leadership team is working in full coordination with the Nevada County Sheriff’s Office and Nevada County Search and Rescue to support the ongoing rescue operation” rgj. Avalanche forecaster Brandon Schwartz said conditions made the backcountry especially treacherous, noting that “it’s particularly dangerous in the backcountry right now just because we’re at the height of the storm” desertsun +1.

Looking Ahead

With nine people still unaccounted for and continued storm impacts limiting access, officials stressed that the situation remained fluid and numbers could change as they reached family members and clarified who was on the trip pbs +1. The incident underscored how quickly a guided outing on familiar terrain can turn deadly when a rapidly loading snowpack, strong winds and a high avalanche warning intersect — and left rescuers working against time, weather and unstable slopes to turn as many of the remaining missing skiers into survivors as possible.