Search continues for 9 caught in CA avalanche after 6 rescued from Castle Peak
Authorities announced late Tuesday that six people who survived a backcountry avalanche near Truckee had been rescued, while the search continued for nine others still unaccounted for after the slide near Castle Peak in Nevada County.
The group of 15 total skiers included four ski guides and 11 clients, the Nevada County Sheriff’s Office said in an afternoon news release. The avalanche happened around 11:30 a.m.
Just before 10:45 p.m., the Sheriff’s Office said it had rescued six of the skiers who had been located earlier. Two of them were taken to a hospital, the Sheriff’s Office said. Deputies also said in the late update that the number of people had been revisied.
“That number has been updated to reflect 15 people who actually went on the trip,” the Sheriff’s Office said.
Earlier in the evening, deputies had said that “highly skilled rescue ski teams have departed from both Boreal Mountain Ski Resort and Tahoe Donner’s Alder Creek Adventure Center to make their way to the six known survivors, who have been directed to shelter in place as best they can in the conditions.”
After more than 12 hours and amid a record-breaking blizzard across the Sierra, the search for the remaining nine people was expected to continue Wednesday morning. The Sheriff’s Office said 46 first responders were involved in the rescue effort and warned that high avalanche danger lingered in the area just west of Truckee and about 80 miles northeast of Sacramento.
“Weather conditions remain highly dangerous,” sheriff’s officials said.
A news conference on the rescue and continued search efforts was expected to take place at 11 a.m. Wednesday in Grass Valley.
A Truckee-based ski guide company, Blackbird Mountain Guides, said in a statement that Tuesday’s incident came on the final day of a three-day backcountry ski trip that lodged the 15 skiers at the Frog Lake huts in the Castle Peak area. The skiers were returning to the trailhead to conclude the trip when the avalanche happened, according to Blackbird’s statement.
Nevada County sheriff’s officials initially said “several” skiers were reported missing after the avalanche Tuesday morning in the Sierra Nevada’s Castle Peak area, north of Soda Springs and northwest of Truckee. The Nevada County Sheriff’s Office, the sheriff’s search and rescue team and other agencies responded around 11:30 a.m.
The reported avalanche came amid a powerful winter storm that has dumped multiple feet of snow in the mountains and prompted warnings of high avalanche danger in the Lake Tahoe backcountry into Wednesday. A backcountry avalanche warning for the greater Lake Tahoe area is in place until at least 5 a.m. Wednesday, according to the Sierra Avalanche Center.
The National Weather Service has a winter storm warning in place through 10 p.m. Thursday for the entire Sierra Nevada range, warning that elevations above 3,500 feet could get 4 to 8 feet of snow by the end of the storm.
Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office in a statement Tuesday evening said Newsom has been briefed on the incident.
“The state is coordinating an all-hands search and rescue effort with local partners and deploying resources to support the active response,” the Governor’s Office wrote.
The Sheriff’s Office planned a news conference Wednesday morning to provide an update.
According to a database of avalanche fatalities from around the country compiled by the Colorado Avalanche Information Center, if the 10 missing people are not found alive, it will be the deadliest avalanche in state history and among the deadliest nationwide.
The deadliest California avalanche appears to have occurred in 1982 at Alpine Meadows Ski Resort, when seven people were killed, according to the database.
Ski guide company shares statement
Ski guiding company Blackbird Mountain Guides issued a statement on its website Tuesday evening saying a group of clients and guides had been traveling out of the Frog Lake huts when they were caught in the avalanche.
“A total of 12 clients and four guides had been staying at the Frog Lake huts since February 15,” the statement read. “The group was in the process of returning to the trailhead at the conclusion of a three-day trip when the incident occurred.”
The Truckee-based company’s leadership was working with the Nevada County Sheriff’s Office and was also in touch with the emergency contacts of both guides and clients, according to the statement.
Blackbird’s statement did not explicitly say a Blackbird Mountain Guides trip was involved in the avalanche, or whether the incident may have involved more than one guiding company. But the firm noted that Blackbird “is in direct contact with the emergency contacts of the affected clients and guides.”
A voicemail seeking comment from the company, left Tuesday afternoon before Blackbird Mountain Guides published its statement, was not returned.
The Castle Peak area is home to several backcountry cabins used by guide companies and private parties for overnight trips where people ski multiple days and stay in the huts. The Frog Lake huts are made up of three lodging huts with sleeping quarters, plus a communal hut with a kitchen, fireplace and gathering area, according to the website for the Truckee Donner Land Trust, which runs the facilities.
Blackbird’s website displays an option to book tours for groups of up to eight clients at a time at the Frog Lake huts.
Sunday, the day the group had apparently gone into the backcountry huts, was a picturesque day in the mountains, with blue skies and warm temperatures throughout the day. The first of a series of winter storms, which had been broadcast by forecasters for days prior to the weekend, began to hit the area early Monday. Snow accumulated rapidly and steadily throughout the day Monday, and authorities closed Interstate 80, which crosses Donner Pass near the Castle Peak area, to traffic several times that day as wind and snow created whiteout conditions.
The storm continued to intensify on Tuesday, some Tahoe Area ski resorts announced closures throughout the day due to wind and snow intensity. The website OpenSnow, which provides detailed winter weather forecasts for skiers, reported Tuesday evening that as much as 2 feet of snow had fallen in some places by 6 p.m.
Such heavy and rapidly accumulating snowfall was likely to drive a natural avalanche cycle, the Sierra Avalanche Center reported, when snow slides could start without a human trigger.
Authorities in Placer County on Tuesday also reported the death of a 53-year-old skier involved in an accident Sunday morning on an advanced run at Northstar California Resort in Truckee. That incident involved two skiers and came before the brunt of this week’s winter storm.
Castle Peak is just north of Soda Springs on the north side of Lake Tahoe.
Castle Peak saw earlier fatal avalanche this season
The Castle Peak area had already experienced one deadly avalanche this winter.
On Jan. 5, a 42-year-old snowmobiler from Bend, Oregon, was killed after triggering a wind slab avalanche on the backside of Castle Peak, according to the Colorado Avalanche Information Center and previous Bee reporting.
The man was riding with a group of experienced snowmobilers when he was buried in the slide. His companions located him using avalanche beacons and began CPR, assisted by an off-duty Truckee Fire medic who happened upon the scene, authorities said.
The man, identified as Chris Scott Thomason, did not survive.
Authorities said the five riders were equipped with appropriate backcountry safety gear, including beacons, and that two members of the group were local to the area. Two members of the party were CPR certified.
That incident followed a series of winter storms that dropped several feet of snow across the Sierra and elevated avalanche danger in the region — conditions similar to those in place Tuesday.
Backcountry skiing popular near avalanche site
The terrain around Castle Peak is one of the Tahoe area’s more popular zones for backcountry skiers of varying abilities and experience. Skiers can access both low-angled terrain that is considered safer during increased avalanche risks, and also steep slopes.
But under the avalanche conditions highlighted by the Sierra Avalanche Center on Tuesday, skiing or traveling across any backcountry terrain carried significant risk. Even if a skier is on a slope that is not steep enough to give way to an avalanche itself, avalanches can start on higher, steeper terrain and come down onto the skier.
The Castle Peak area is also home to the Peter Grubb Hut, a historic hut built in the late 1930s. It was not immediately clear whether the group caught in the avalanche Tuesday was using one of the huts.
This story was originally published February 17, 2026 at 12:44 PM with the headline "Search continues for 9 caught in CA avalanche after 6 rescued from Castle Peak."
