Bodies of nine skiers retrieved as avalanche risk lowered slightly

The bodies of the nine skiers killed in Tuesday’s avalanche were retrieved Friday and on Saturday morning, and their identities confirmed.

On Saturday morning, a U.S. Army California National Guard Blackhawk med-evac helicopter took off from the Truckee airport just before 10 a.m. and flew into the area where the deadly slide struck a ski-tour group and guides northeast of Donner Summit.

After just over an hour, the chopper returned to the airport, and authorities said Saturday afternoon it had recovered three of the dead skiers, delivering them to tractor-like snowcat vehicles nearby that brought them out to Truckee where a coroner received them. One victim had been hoisted out by a California Highway Patrol helicopter earlier Saturday, but high winds prevented that chopper from continuing the retrievals.

“The California National Guard was on site, and they continued the hoist operation,” Nevada County Sheriff’s Office Lt. Dennis Haack said.

The five additional victims had been hoisted up by the CHP chopper Friday and taken out on snowcats, police said.

One member of the 15-member group, who had been missing and was presumed dead, was located deceased Friday by search-and-rescue technicians dropped at the slide site by the CHP chopper. That person was found “relatively close” to the others, but searchers had been unable to find them Tuesday because of white-out, night-time conditions, Haack said.

All nine bodies were expected to be delivered to the Placer County Sheriff’s Office Coroner’s Unit in Roseville near Sacramento by the end of Saturday, said sheriff’s office spokeswoman Elise Soviar. Avalanche victims are sometimes swept through trees and rocks, and not all succumb to suffocation. Full autopsies of the nine are expected to be conducted to determine causes of death, Soviar said.

Authorities said the recovery effort included 42 search and rescue volunteers, as well as California Highway Patrol and the California National Guard. The last skier’s body was recovered at 10:58 a.m., the Nevada County Sheriff’s Office said Saturday.

Many questions remain around the reasons the ski party, at the end of a three-day tour led by local company Blackbird Mountain Guides, left their Frog Lakes Huts accommodations to return home at a time when the avalanche danger was rated “high,” one step below the highest danger level of “extreme.”

“They did decide to leave early to try to get off the mountain early,” Haack said.

The slide was the deadliest in California history.

Risk of more avalanches in the area had been slightly lowered Saturday, but with a new aspect of peril.

While the Sierra Avalanche Center had rated the danger of slides “high” on Tuesday — the second most dangerous below “extreme” — center forecasters reported the overall danger as “considerable” Saturday, one level lower. And while large to very large slides of thick slabs of snow were “likely” Tuesday, the center said avalanches of that size were “possible” Saturday.

But forecasters added a new danger, of wind-blown snow packed into slabs, making small to large avalanches likely, though not at lower elevations or on slopes facing west, southwest or south.

Six survivors were rescued Tuesday, including one of the four guides leading the trip. Two of the survivors were treated at a hospital for non-life-threatening injuries. One was soon released. Authorities said Saturday they did not know the condition of the other hospitalized survivor.

The locations of eight who didn’t survive were marked with poles in the snow. One more skier was missing and presumed dead.

Six of the nine victims, all women, were identified Thursday afternoon as 46-year-old Soda Springs resident Carrie Atkin, 52-year-old Boise, Idaho resident Lizbeth Clabaugh, 44-year-old Soda Springs and Larkspur resident, Danielle Keatley, 45-year-old Soda Springs and Tiburon resident Kate Morse, 45-year-old Soda Springs and San Francisco resident, Caroline Sekar and 43-year-old Greenbrae resident, Katherine Vitt.

Some of the women were mothers of children in Sugar Bowl Academy’s competitive ski program.

The guided group of 15 backcountry skiers had spent two nights at the Frog Lake huts north of Interstate 80 near Donner Summit and was returning to the trailhead Tuesday morning when the avalanche struck. The trip was led by Truckee-based Blackbird Mountain Guides. Three of the four guides on the excursion were among those killed.

Authorities confirmed the identities of all nine victims Saturday and identified the other three Blackbird Mountain Guides who were killed in the slide as 34-year-old Verdi, Nevada resident Andrew Alissandratos, 42-year-old South Lake Tahoe resident, Nicole Choo and 30-year-old Tampa, Florida resident Michael Henry.

Days earlier, the guiding company had posted a video on Instagram warning that recent dry spells followed by new snow had created a “particularly weak layer” in the snowpack that could lead to “unpredictable avalanches.”

The state has opened an investigation into the incident and the role of guides working for the company. The California Division of Occupational Safety and Health is leading the probe and has up to six months to determine whether workplace safety violations occurred.

Storm efforts had repeatedly delayed recovery of the skiers’ bodies, as heavy snow, high winds and continued avalanche risk have prevented crews from retrieving the victims Wednesday and Thursday.

Authorities deployed two Pacific Gas & Electric helicopters Friday to try to trigger avalanches so they wouldn’t occur during recovery operations over the weekend.

Check back as this story develops.