9 Dead in Tahoe Backcountry Avalanche -- California's Deadliest on Record

Category: Safety | Reading Time: 7 min | Tags: avalanche, backcountry, tahoe, safety

There's no good way to write this one.

Nine backcountry skiers -- three professional guides and six clients -- are dead after an avalanche near Castle Peak and Frog Lake on February 17. All nine bodies have been recovered and all victims have been identified by the Nevada County Sheriff's Office. It is the deadliest avalanche in California history and the worst in the United States since the 1981 Mount Rainier disaster.

This isn't a story about reckless beginners who wandered into terrain they didn't understand. By all accounts, these were experienced, well-equipped skiers on a guided trip with professional outfitters. That's what makes it so gut-wrenching.

What Happened

A group of 15 -- 11 clients and 4 guides from Blackbird Mountain Guides -- set out on a three-day Presidents Day weekend backcountry trip on February 15. The plan was to ski into the Frog Lake huts near Castle Peak, spend two nights, and ski back out on the 17th.

They were heading back toward the trailhead on the morning of February 17 when a football-field-sized slab broke loose on the north side of Perry Peak around 11:30 a.m. Someone shouted "avalanche" but there was no time. The snow overtook the group almost instantly, burying 12 of the 15 skiers.

The three who weren't buried immediately went into what Nevada County Undersheriff Sam Brown called "frantic mode" -- digging desperately to free their friends and partners. They managed to pull three people out alive. The other nine were buried too deep.

Here's the brutal part: rescuers knew about the slide almost immediately but couldn't get there. Blizzard conditions made access nearly impossible. Search and rescue crews didn't reach the site until 5:30 p.m. -- six hours later. They took a snowcat two miles in, then had to ski the rest of the way to avoid triggering another slide.

They found six survivors huddled under a makeshift tarp shelter, communicating via emergency beacons and iPhone emergency mode. Two of the survivors were injured badly enough to be hospitalized.

Five bodies were recovered on February 20 after the storm broke and crews could perform avalanche mitigation. The remaining four were recovered on February 21.

The Victims

The Guides

• Andrew Alissandratos, 34, from Verdi, Nevada. Born and raised in Florida, he'd made the Sierra Nevada his home. His bio on the Blackbird website said the mountains were "where Andrew feels most himself."
• Michael Henry, 30, from Soda Springs, California.
• Nicole "Niki" Choo, 42, from South Lake Tahoe.

All three were guides with Blackbird Mountain Guides. One of the four guides on the trip survived.

The Clients

• Carrie Atkin, 42, from South Lake Tahoe. Former corporate executive, Division I athlete, Harvard grad in Applied Mathematics. Lived in Tahoe with her husband and two kids.
• Liz Clabaugh, 52, from Boise, Idaho. Clinical educator and coordinator at St. Luke's Health System. Sister of Caroline Sekar.
• Danielle Keatley, 44, from Marin County. Co-founded Keatley Wines in Healdsburg with her husband. Grew up in Connecticut, spent years in Provence before landing in the Bay Area.
• Kate Morse, 45, from Marin County. VP of Commercial Strategy at biotech firm Septerna. Her CEO described her as "a devoted wife and mother who proudly brought her children to the office."
• Caroline Sekar, 45, from San Francisco. A neighbor called her "the sunshine" of their block. Lived with her husband and two children.
• Kate Vitt, 43, from Marin County. Streaming music executive who'd worked at Pandora for eight years and most recently at SiriusXM. Boston College grad.

The six women were close friends. Their families released a joint statement: "They were all mothers, wives and friends, all of whom connected through the love of the outdoors." The statement said they were "passionate, skilled skiers who cherished time together in the mountains."

One of the victims was identified as the spouse of a Tahoe Nordic Search and Rescue team member. Think about that for a second.

The Conditions

This is where it gets complicated -- and where the hard questions start.

The storm that hit the Sierra that week was massive. Forecasters had called for 4 to 8 feet of snow along the Sierra crest. By February 17, accumulation was 3 to 6 feet. Boreal Mountain, right near Castle Peak, reported 30 inches in 24 hours. The National Weather Service said 3 to 4 inches per hour was falling in some areas near the avalanche site.

An avalanche warning was issued for the Lake Tahoe region early on February 17 -- the same day the group was heading out. The warning said D3-sized avalanches were likely. That's big enough to bury a car or a house.

The group had departed on February 15, before the worst of the storm and before the avalanche warning was issued. But they were in the backcountry as conditions deteriorated rapidly. Authorities are investigating Blackbird Mountain Guides' decision to proceed with the trip given the forecast.

It's worth noting: Blackbird charged about $1,165 per person for the three-day trip and provided some safety gear, but did not provide avalanche beacons, shovels, or probes -- they recommended clients bring their own. The families' statement said the women "were fully equipped with avalanche safety equipment."

The Donner Land Trust, which controls the area, has a warning posted on their website that "all areas are uncontrolled avalanche terrain that require appropriate avalanche education and equipment."

The Backcountry Safety Conversation

Every time something like this happens, the backcountry community goes through the same painful reckoning. And every time, the takeaways are the same -- because the mountains don't change.

A few things worth saying:

Avalanche conditions can shift faster than your itinerary. This group left on a Saturday and was caught on a Monday. The forecast worsened dramatically in between. Once you're in the backcountry, changing plans isn't always simple -- especially when you're at a hut system miles from the trailhead. But the ability to bail on a plan, even an expensive one, is the most important piece of safety gear you carry.

Professional guides reduce risk. They don't eliminate it. Three experienced guides died in this avalanche. Having guides is smart. Trusting that guides make you invincible is not. The mountains don't care about credentials.

Carry your own gear and know how to use it. Beacons, shovels, probes. Every single time. And take an avalanche course if you haven't. Then take a refresher.

Check the avalanche forecast obsessively. The Sierra Avalanche Center exists for a reason. So do CAIC, NWAC, and every other regional center. Before and during your trip.

California Governor Gavin Newsom said he and his wife had personal connections to some of the victims -- mutual friends, old family friends. That's how tight the Tahoe ski community is. Everyone knows someone.

This is a loss that will reverberate through the Tahoe and Bay Area ski communities for a very long time. Nine people who loved the mountains and did a lot of things right still didn't come home. That's the brutal, honest truth about backcountry skiing -- and it's why we owe it to ourselves and each other to take the risks seriously every single time we skin up.

Our deepest condolences go out to all nine families, the survivors, and the rescue teams who worked in terrible conditions to bring everyone home.

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If you're heading into the backcountry, check your local avalanche center before every trip. For the Sierra Nevada, that's the Sierra Avalanche Center. Carry a beacon, shovel, and probe -- and know how to use them.