When authorities in Truckee, California, learned of a large avalanche that hit a group of backcountry skiers, they rushed into action.
Emergency messages came on Tuesday at 11:30 local time (19:30 GMT) from a group guide’s iPhone, using satellite-texting capabilities, as well as from another skier’s emergency distress beacon.
The 15-person group was at the end of a three-day trip to the Frog Lake Huts in the popular Castle Peak mountain region when the avalanche struck, according to the Nevada County Sheriff’s Office.
But with nearby Highway 80 closed due to an ongoing massive storm, it was a challenge to reach the group, and authorities had to improvise.
The trapped skiers were directly across the snow-blocked highway from the Boreal Mountain Ski Resort, also closed due to the weather, but the resort was able to deploy rescue teams in an attempt to reach them. Another nearby resort, Tahoe Donner’s Alder Creek Adventure Center, also sent teams. Some used a snow-cat, a manned vehicle that runs on treads in order to move on top of deep snow. They are most commonly used for grooming ski runs, but can also transport people.
By Tuesday afternoon, around 50 rescuers were working to reach the site, arriving from both the south and north of the mountain. At 17:30, they arrived at an area roughly two miles (3.2km) from where survivors were sheltering in make-shift tents, and had to ski in from there.
The accident site was about as large as a football field, according to officials.
For rescuers in any avalanche, time is crucial. People who are fully buried under avalanche snow normally die from asphyxiation in less than one hour. But, roughly half of avalanche fatalities in North America are caused by blunt force trauma, rather than burial, according to a recent study.
Rescue teams, as well as the group trapped by the avalanche, used special climbing skins on the underside of their skis, allowing users to travel uphill and through the backcountry.
Eventually, they found a group of six alive, stranded on the mountain and trying desperately to shelter from the storm.
Two of the six survivors had to be carried back and “could not walk because of the injuries they sustained during the avalanche,” said Placer County Sheriff Wayne Woo. They were taken to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. One person remained missing as of Wednesday afternoon, and is presumed dead.