At least one dead after avalanche at Palisades Tahoe ski resort in California

Brad Brooks
Reuters
Rescuers are at the scene after an avalanche at the Palisades Tahoe ski resort in California. (AP PHOTO)
Rescuers are at the scene after an avalanche at the Palisades Tahoe ski resort in California. (AP PHOTO) Credit: AP

One skier has been killed and another received minor injuries in an avalanche at the Palisades Tahoe ski resort in California.

Authorities did not release the names of the man killed or the person injured. Both were guests of the resort and not employees, resort officials said. Two other people were hit by the avalanche but not injured.

“At this point in time, all search efforts have concluded,” said Placer County Sheriff’s spokesman David Smith.

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“There is nobody else up on the mountain.”

Palisades Tahoe, which was formerly known as Squaw Valley and was the site of the 1960 Winter Olympics, is located about 160km northeast of San Francisco. The avalanche took place about 9.30am on Wednesday.

“This is a very sad day for my team,” Dee Byrne, president and chief operating officer of the resort, said at a press conference.

“This is a dynamic situation, we’re still undergoing an investigation,” she added.

It was not immediately clear what triggered the avalanche, but heavy snows and high winds have pounded the mountainous area for the past day.

Michael Gross, vice president of mountain operations at Palisades Tahoe, said at the press conference the resort’s ski patrol had been carrying out avalanche assessments in the area where the slide took place since Sunday and deemed it safe to open to the public. He said it was normal to open a ski run amid heavy snows.

The Placer County Sheriff’s office said in a statement that the avalanche debris field is approximately 45m wide, 140m long and three metres deep.

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