{"id":479020,"date":"2026-02-20T02:19:17","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T02:19:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/479020\/"},"modified":"2026-02-20T02:19:17","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T02:19:17","slug":"sierra-nevada-avalanche-victims-identified","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/479020\/","title":{"rendered":"Sierra Nevada avalanche victims identified"},"content":{"rendered":"

TRUCKEE \u2014 Six of the eight people confirmed dead in an avalanche<\/a> earlier this week in the Sierra Nevada were identified Thursday afternoon.<\/p>\n

RELATED: Sugar Bowl ski community reeling after avalanche victims identified as mothers of youth racers<\/a><\/p>\n

They were identified as Carrie Atkin, Liz Clabaugh, Danielle Keatley, Kate Morse, Caroline Sekar and Kate Vitt, according to a statement released by their families.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are devastated beyond words,\u201d the statement read in part. \u201cOur focus right now is supporting our children through this incredible tragedy and honoring the lives of these extraordinary women.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were all mothers, wives and friends, all of whom connected through the love of the outdoors,\u201d the statement read. \u201cThey were passionate, skilled skiers who cherished time together in the mountains.\u201d<\/p>\n

Authorities have said they would not publicly confirm the identity of anyone killed<\/a> until after the bodies had been brought down the mountain, an operation that was still delayed Thursday due to blizzard conditions.<\/p>\n

The women were on a \u201cprofessionally guided\u201d trip to Frog Lake Huts outside Truckee when they were caught in the avalanche \u2013 the largest in state history \u2013 near Castle Peak, according to the statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were trained and prepared for backcountry travel and trusted their professional guides on this trip,\u201d the statement read. \u201cThey were fully equipped with avalanche safety equipment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Two other people on the trip were killed and another is missing but presumed dead. They have not been identified.<\/p>\n

In San Francisco\u2019s Bernal Heights, where Sekar lived with her husband and two children on a block packed with young families, neighbors said they have lost the \u201cbrightest, sunniest and most positive person\u201d \u2014 an amazing mom.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe way it works with all these kids around the same ages is like, if you\u2019re mom to one, you\u2019re mom to all. And she definitely was that, and then some,\u201d said Jen Wofford, who lives across the street and said her daughter and Sekar\u2019s daughter are close friends.<\/p>\n

During the pandemic, Sekar, 45, helped block off the street and hosted movie nights projected onto her garage door. She started a WhatsApp group among parents to keep track of their kids playing at different houses and opened her front porch for drop-offs of organic produce boxes for neighbors.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe called it \u2018babysitting them,\u2019\u201d Wofford said Thursday. \u201cIf it\u2019s hot, there\u2019s an umbrella. If it\u2019s raining, there\u2019s an umbrella at a different angle,\u201d she said, describing Sekar\u2019s habit of adjusting the porch setup to keep the kids comfortable.<\/p>\n

Skiing was a \u201chuge part\u201d of the Sekars\u2019 lives, she said. They spent much of the summer in Tahoe and had headed to the mountains for ski week when the tragedy struck.<\/p>\n

The bodies of the nine people who died remain on the mountain, marked only by avalanche poles pushed into the snow.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat part really bothers me,\u201d Wofford said. \u201cIt\u2019s just horrible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Emergency crews, who battled gale-force winds and whiteout conditions to rescue six survivors Tuesday evening, are waiting for the weather to improve before they can return to bring the victims home.<\/p>\n

Check back for updates.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TRUCKEE \u2014 Six of the eight people confirmed dead in an avalanche earlier this week in the Sierra…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":479021,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1222,3805,4,450,451,19407,3,452,453],"class_list":{"0":"post-479020","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-breaking-news","8":"tag-avalanche","9":"tag-bay-area","10":"tag-breaking-news","11":"tag-breakingnews","12":"tag-headlines","13":"tag-lake-tahoe","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-top-stories","16":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479020","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=479020"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479020\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/479021"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=479020"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=479020"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=479020"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}