Crews to trigger new slide at deadly Sierra avalanche scene as crews wait to recover victims
Sierra crews were planning to trigger a controlled avalanche Friday in the Lake Tahoe backcountry where nine people lost their lives in Tuesday’s deadly avalanche near Castle Peak, Nevada County Sheriff’s Office said.
Helicopter flights performed by a medevac helicopter earlier in the day surveyed the slide site to determine if crews could safely dislodge the unstable snow. Crews were then given the go ahead to detonate explosives to trigger a controlled avalanche. The measures will give recovery teams the ability to move more safely into the area, the Sheriff’s Office said.
“These proactive measures are designed to reduce the risk of naturally occurring avalanches and enhance first responder safety within the affected area, so they may recover victims with lower risk,” Ashley Quadros, a Sheriff’s Office spokesperson, said in an earlier release on Friday.
Authorities said just before 3 p.m. that explosions would be “commencing shortly,” and advised anyone in the area above the Interstate 80 corridor or the Castle Peak turnout and trailhead to stay out.
Dangerous avalanche conditions were expected to continue through Friday, according to the Sierra Avalanche Center.
The bodies of the eight remain at the site. A ninth person, still missing Friday, is presumed to have died in the football-field-sized slide, the deadliest avalanche in California history. Weather conditions and continued fears of another avalanche, have hampered recovery efforts, Nevada County Sheriff’s Office said in a Friday statement.
Among the identified victims, mothers of children in the competitive ski program Sugar Bowl Academy, and close friends who bonded over their love of backcountry skiing. Three guides from the Truckee-based Blackbird Mountain Guides, were also killed.
A guide and five skiers survived the slide. Two were recovering at a hospital.
U.S. Forest Service closed the Castle Peak area of Tahoe National Forest near Truckee through March 15 for safety and to recover the victims.
The avalanche buried the group of 15 skiers and guides Tuesday as they set out from Frog Lake huts for a trailhead during a fierce winter storm in near-whiteout conditions. The group was returning to the trailhead at the end of its three-day excursion when the deadly incident occurred in rugged, ungroomed terrain near the Pacific Crest Trail.
This story was originally published February 20, 2026 at 2:22 PM.
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