Last Friday started as one of those perfect winter days in Tahoe. A storm dropped about a foot of new snow during the night, and in the morning, the sky cleared.
By the end of the day, however, the Sierra Avalanche Center had received numerous reports of avalanches. Some slides occurred naturally; however, many were triggered by backcountry skiers and snowboarders.
That day, the snowpack had several big issues lurking that were created by the overnight storm. First thing in the morning, the Sierra Avalanche Center posted its forecast, a daily briefing that gives backcountry skiers and snowboarders (as well as people who drive snowmobiles) lifesaving knowledge about what’s happening in the snowpack and the weather. The center noted that storm slabs — dense blocks of snow that build up during a blizzard and are prone to fracturing and sliding — were one of its big concerns. On Friday, the center rated the avalanche danger as “considerable,” which meant that conditions were unstable and skiers and snowboarders were likely to trigger avalanches.
“When you have a bluebird powder day, the human desire to get out and charge is really strong. That’s really high in my mind, in terms of why we saw so many incidents on Friday,” said David Reichel, executive director of the Sierra Avalanche Center. “On a human level, I totally understand the impulse to get out. But clearly, we had new snow and there were really sensitive wind slabs and storm slabs.”
Reports of avalanches continued to come in throughout the holiday weekend. No fatalities were reported. However, multiple people were buried in avalanches, with at least one person severely injured. A definitive number of avalanche incidents is difficult to pinpoint, said Reichel. Avalanches can occur naturally. Small ones might be triggered intentionally by forecasters to study the snowpack. Some slides may not catch the skier or rider, others may only partially bury someone. Plus, there are more avalanches that go unreported.
Across the United States, avalanches have killed 25 people so far this winter, including 18 deaths in February. Some experts believe that COVID-19 restrictions are playing a role in the high number of fatalities this winter, with more people heading into the backcountry to release stress and avoid crowds. At the same time, the snowpack across the mountain West has been riddled with inherent dangers since the beginning of the winter. In Colorado and Utah, especially, those dangers — called weak layers — are still playing a role in avalanches. The Sierra Nevada’s snowpack is, generally speaking, faster to resolve those weaknesses. Still, Reichel says this winter has seen challenging conditions and he thinks there’s some truth to thinking the pandemic is playing a role in the number of avalanche incidents.
“It’s very hard to say, but I think there’s a lot of truth to that. It’s been a hard year for a lot of people in a lot of ways. I think people are looking for ways of releases and ways to escape,” Reichel said. “But the backcountry is a pretty unforgiving venue to seek that.”
Four people perished in a single avalanche in Utah’s Wasatch Mountains on Feb. 6, the deadliest avalanche so far this winter. On Feb. 2, three people died in Colorado. The day before that, on Feb. 1, another three people died in a slide in Alaska. In California that same week, an avalanche claimed the life of a snowboarder near Mount Shasta.
Reichel says those same weak layers that developed early in the season were present in the Sierra Nevada, too. However, recent winter storms have buried those weak layers deeper in the snowpack. Now, the bigger issues are things like storm slabs and wind slabs.
After the storm, avalanches were pervasive across the Lake Tahoe region last weekend.
“Everywhere there was snow and mountains and people were getting after it, we had reported incidents,” Reichel said.
Avalanche conditions were unstable in the Tahoe region over the holiday weekend.
Courtesy of Sierra Avalanche CenterAt Castle Peak, a popular backcountry zone on top of Donner Summit, on Friday, a snowboarder jumped off a rock, only to be engulfed in a rush of snow that fractured like shattered glass. A terrifying video posted to Instagram shows the snowboarder crashing in the middle of the slide and then disappearing beneath the surface. A photo posted along with the video shows the snowboarder just after he was rescued. He’s barely smiling in the picture.
Another skier-triggered avalanche on Friday, this one near Carson Pass south of Lake Tahoe, buried a person for about five minutes, according to a report submitted to the Sierra Avalanche Center. The victim survived, but sustained severe injuries.
At Mount Tallac on Tahoe’s South Shore, the El Dorado County Sheriff’s Office dispatched a search and rescue team in a helicopter to respond to an avalanche triggered by a group of backcountry skiers. The rescue effort ended when authorities confirmed that no one had been caught in the Mount Tallac slide or was injured.
The El Dorado County Sheriff’s Office have not responded to questions or a request for interview.
Considering the number of avalanche incidents in Tahoe over the weekend, they were all mostly close calls, and backcountry skiers and snowboarders seem to have gotten lucky. But luck is a tricky thing in the mountains.
“I would say any time you’re caught in a slide and you walk away, it’s lucky,” said Andrew Oesterreicher, a volunteer and board member with Tahoe Nordic Search and Rescue (TNSAR). “You don’t ever want to rely on that luck.”
On Flagpole Peak, an anonymous skier reported an avalanche to the Sierra Avalanche Center. After their first ski run, they thought the snowpack was “bomber” and solid, which led them to ski a more aggressive descent next.
“Clearly, it was a stupid mistake getting caught up with powder fever,” the skier wrote in the report. A few turns into the run, a 1-foot-deep storm slab fractured and slid down the mountain, carrying the skier with it.
TNSAR didn’t get any calls to respond to incidents over the weekend, Oesterreicher said. If their team is dispatched to an avalanche, usually it means the situation is tragic.
“The brutal reality is, typically, by the time we’re responding to an avalanche situation, it’s pretty much a recovery at that point,” Oesterreicher said, noting he was referring to recovering victims who did not survive. “Just because it takes our team so long to get to the scene.”
The Sierra Avalanche Center works to prevent accidents from happening in the first place, by equipping backcountry travelers with knowledge in the form of their daily forecasts. The U.S. Forest Service hires three full-time avalanche forecasters who write the daily reports, though the Sierra Avalanche Center pays for a chunk of their salaries. The center also pays for three part-time observers who go into the mountains and help gather evidence about avalanche conditions. During big storm cycles when avalanche danger is high, the website sees a lot of attention, as people turn to it for pivotal information.
In the pandemic, the Sierra Avalanche Center has lost two of its primary fundraising avenues that it has relied on for the last decade to pay for the forecasters. Reichel says the loss adds up to about $100,000, which is more than a quarter of their annual budget. The pandemic canceled fundraising events and ski resorts stopped donating lift tickets to the center, which it would sell to raise money. Reichel says the center has dipped into its reserves to continue to provide its forecasts, and it’s relying more on individual donations.
This month, in particular, has been especially stressful, as fatalities and avalanche incidents continue to be counted. Reichel says it’s sobering.
“It’s hard to convey. The pandemic is awful and probably does have a very big contributing impact. But the snowpack this year was awful, too,” he said. “So having those two things happen at the same time is definitely a stress.”
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