#avalanche

#avalanche

"It was quite chaotic," mountain rescue operations manager Erik Lidström said in an interview with Swedish media outlet SVT.

The combination of over 11 inches of precipitation in less than a week which first fell as snow, then rain, and a prolonged, high pressure period caused snow to accumulate and then break a weak crust layer.

The first victim was located approximately one meter below the surface and showed signs of life after being freed. The second burial was beyond the reach of standard probe rods, and the victim was eventually found 13 to 16 feet down.

Avalanche Canada currently rates the danger as 'Extreme,' or the highest level of danger. People are encouraged to stay out of the backcountry and prepare for road closures if crews deem additional control work necessary.

The two deaths are not connected, and there is no known relationship between the two individuals who died. Information has not yet been released by sheriff's officials on what caused the deaths or the circumstances surrounding them. But a resort spokesperson told South Tahoe Now that one incident involved the death of a 33-year-old man while skiing on an intermediate trail, and another was a medical emergency involving a 58-year-old man.

Local media reports that the man was skiing in a group near the town of La Grave on Tuesday when the avalanche hit. Mountain rescue services responded to the incident but the Briton, along with a Polish national, was pronounced dead, the BBC reported. This comes after two Britons died at the Val d'Isère ski resort on February 13th. An avalanche warning was recently issued for the northern Alps and the Hautes-Alpes, which includes La Grave, by Meteo-France, the country's national weather service.

Operations to retrieve the bodies of skiers killed in Tuesday's avalanche started Saturday morning. A Blackhawk med-evac helicopter took off from a 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. The risk of more avalanches in the area had been slightly lowered Saturday, but with a new aspect of peril.

A 21-year-old San Jose State University student was found dead Thursday morning after he went missing while skiing at Northstar California Resort on Lake Tahoe's north shore. The death also came during a brutal storm that dumped more than 8 feet of snow on Lake Tahoe the surrounding region, the same storm that left measurable snowfall in the Santa Cruz Mountains.

Horrifying new footage shows the lodges where a group of skiers were staying before they were struck by a huge avalanche. The apocalyptical video, taken from a news helicopter, sees layers of snow completely engulfing Frog Lake huts on Castle Peak, near Truckee, on Friday afternoon. Eight people were killed in the slide on Tuesday when the group tried to escape the massive winter storm. Another is still missing and presumed dead.

The California Division of Occupational Safety and Health, known as Cal/OSHA has launched an investigation into the catastrophic avalanche near Lake Tahoe's Castle Peak that killed nine people during a guided backcountry ski trip, authorities confirmed Thursday. OSHA said it is examining the incident involving guides employed by Blackbird Mountain Guides LLC. The agency investigates workplace hazards, including accidents that result in serious injury or death.

An 11-year-old girl was killed Thursday after being caught in an avalanche while backcountry skiing with her family near Brighton Ski Resort, marking another fatal slide during a difficult winter for Utah's avalanche safety community. On Wednesday, a father was killed by an avalanche in the Wasatch when he was snowmobiling with his son. The avalanche occurred in terrain adjacent to the resort in an area known as the "Rock Garden," according to Fox 13 News.

Truckee backcountry-education and guiding company owner Sarah Reynaud and her husband and two daughters had a trip booked to the Frog Lake Huts for the same three days as the party hit by Tuesday's deadly avalanche. But for an illness, Reynaud said Thursday, We would've been with that group. Instead, she watched the tragedy send shudders of grief through much of Northern California's devoted skiing community.

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