Sisters Caroline Sekar and Liz Clabaugh were part of a group of 15 people, including clients and guides from the ski tour company Blackbird Mountain Guides overwhelmed by an avalanche while they were on the final day of a three-day backcountry trek, according to the report.
Sekar is a San Francisco resident and, according to her LinkedIn, a Stanford alum, while Clabaugh, 52, lived in Boise, Idaho, according to the report.
“These are two of the best people I’ve ever known,” Clabaugh’s husband told the New York Times. “They were incredible sisters, mothers, wives and friends. And the idea that they are both gone is, I don’t even know how to put it into words.”
The avalanche hit around 11:30 a.m. Tuesday in Northern California’s Sierra Nevada Mountains, specifically in the Castle Peak area in the Tahoe National Forest near Truckee.
Authorities said on Wednesday that eight people were confirmed dead and one was still missing, but all nine are presumed dead given the weather conditions. Rescuers have been unable to retrieve their bodies safely from the mountain due to hazardous weather conditions, authorities said, according to the Nevada County Sheriff’s Office.
Recovery efforts are expected to carry into the week. Only after the bodies are recovered will authorities be able to confirm the identities of the victims, deputies said.
Police said six people — four men and two women — were rescued Tuesday evening despite rugged terrain and ongoing avalanche threats. Survivors had already located three dead skiers before search and rescue crews found the remaining five.
Despite extreme weather, search and rescue crews reached the avalanche site by 5:30 p.m. by snowcat and skis. SAR rescued all six survivors, two of whom had non-life-threatening injuries and couldn’t walk, authorities said. One injured person was released, the other hospitalized.
Before Tuesday, six people had died in avalanches across the United States this year. The Colorado Avalanche Information Center reported that last month, a snowmobiler was killed after being buried in an avalanche at Castle Peak, just north of Donner Summit.
The avalanche on Tuesday was about a mile from where the snowbiler was caught, deputies said.
AP News contributed to this report. Read more from the New York Times.