Lake Tahoe backcountry avalanche near Castle Peak kills eight, one missing

A snowmobile parked outside Alder Creek Adventure Center became a staging sign for search crews after a massive avalanche in the Lake Tahoe backcountry near Castle Peak on Feb. 16-17 left eight dead and a ninth person presumed missing, officials and rescuers reported. The slide struck during the region’s ski-week period and swept through a backcountry route east of Boreal Mountain and northwest of Truckee.

The victims were part of a 15-person backcountry ski party on a three-day expedition; six members of the group were rescued alive, while eight were found dead and one remains unaccounted for, rescuers said. Blackbird Mountain Guides confirmed that three of its guides who were leading the trip were among those killed, and the company reported the incident while search operations were under way.

Family members have identified some of the dead. Sisters Caroline Sekar, 45, of San Francisco, and Liz Clabaugh, 52, of Boise, Idaho, were among those killed, according to relatives who spoke with investigators. Sugar Bowl Academy, which said multiple members of its community had died, urged patience while officials notify families: "Emergency responders are still working to recover all of the victims and are not at this time sharing the personal details of the victims and the survivors out of respect for the families affected," the academy said.

Rescuers characterized the slide as roughly the size of a football field, a scale that complicated digging and patient recovery in steep, wind-loaded terrain. Search crews launched from Alder Creek Adventure Center and a second, unspecified site near Truckee, using snowmobiles and organized ground teams, but dangerous conditions repeatedly hindered progress and slowed timelines for locating the missing skier.

Local authorities have opened an inquiry into the circumstances of the expedition and are probing possible criminal negligence as part of the aftermath, a development that could involve multiple agencies as they assemble SAR logs and interview survivors. Coroner confirmations, full victim lists and the names of the guides have not been released publicly pending next-of-kin notifications and ongoing investigative steps.

The Castle Peak tragedy adds to a deadly stretch for Sierra Nevada mountains this season; regional reporting on avalanche incidents has tallied more than 90 deaths across the season to date and highlighted recent separate ski fatalities at Heavenly Mountain Resort, where a 58-year-old man suffered a medical emergency on the Tamarack Trail and a 33-year-old man died on the Orion Trail. In December, Mammoth Mountain lost a 30-year-old ski patroller, Cole Murphy, after an avalanche that carried him hundreds of feet; colleagues needed 18 minutes to find and dig him out before he was airlifted to Reno and pronounced dead days later.

Search and recovery operations around Castle Peak continue, with officials planning to release a full incident timeline, autopsy results and investigative findings when next-of-kin notifications are complete and when hazardous conditions allow crews to secure the scene.