The bodies of nine skiers who were killed in an avalanche in the mountains near Lake Tahoe earlier this week have been recovered, the authorities said Saturday, bringing to a close an effort that had been hampered for several days by hazardous weather conditions.
A ninth victim who had been missing was found and recovered along with four other victims on Friday, Lieutenant Dennis Haack of the Nevada County Sheriff’s Office said at an afternoon news conference.
Four other victims were recovered on Saturday morning, according to the sheriff’s office.
“While we wish we could have saved them all, we are grateful that we can bring them home,” said Shannan Moon, the sheriff.
The avalanche on Tuesday was the deadliest in modern California history. The victims were part of a group of 15 people, including four professional guides, finishing up a three-day back country trek through Castle Peak, a remote part of the Sierra Nevada.
The group had set out on its expedition on Sunday even as the region anticipated its first big blizzard of the year and an avalanche prediction center had warned of a “high” danger level for travel in avalanche-prone areas.
Officials said on Saturday that the recovery operations began on Friday, after they took steps to reduce the threat of further avalanches in the area and deemed conditions safe enough to send in rescuers.
All of the bodies were hoisted out using helicopters and taken to a staging area near Frog Lake huts, where the group of skiers had been lodging before their trip, officials said.
Officials had previously said the ski group had been caught in an avalanche about the size of a football field around 11:30 a.m. on Tuesday. Six survivors, four men and two women, were rescued after using avalanches beacons and the SOS satellite functions on their iPhones.
Rescuers had traveled for several hours in a snowcat, a treaded vehicle, over difficult terrain before finally reaching the survivors at around 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, according to the county sheriff’s office. The survivors led the rescue team to the remains of three people, and rescuers later located five other victims.
Orlando Mayorquín is a Times reporter covering California. He is based in Los Angeles.
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