The group of skiers concerned within the deadly avalanche in California’s Sierra Nevada Mountains on Tuesday consists of dad and mom, principally moms, of scholars at an area faculty and ski academy, based on a supply concerned within the search and rescue effort and a press release from the college.
“A number of members of the Sugar Bowl Academy neighborhood and others with robust connections to Sugar Bowl, Donner Summit, and the backcountry neighborhood died in an avalanche on Tuesday, February 17, 2026,” a press release from the college mentioned.
Sugar Bowl Academy is a non-public impartial faculty boarding and day faculty designed for aggressive skiers.
A rescue ski crew makes their method to the world of an avalanche within the Fortress Peak space of Truckee, Calif., February 17, 2026.
Nevada County Sheriff’s Workplace
A supply concerned within the search and rescue effort on the scene instructed ABC Information that almost all of each the deceased and surviving victims of the avalanche are dad and mom related to the college.
The dad and mom’ children are on a winter break from faculty, based on sources acquainted.
Authorities haven’t publicly recognized any of the victims.
Emergency responders “are nonetheless working to get better the entire victims and should not at the moment sharing the private particulars of the victims and the survivors out of respect for the households affected,” the college mentioned within the assertion. “Sugar Bowl Academy is equally not sharing the names of the victims and survivors out of respect for the households affected.”
A snowmobile is parked at Alder Creek Journey Heart, one among two websites the place search crews had been launched to attempt to find a gaggle of lacking skiers after an avalanche in a backcountry slope of California’s Sierra Nevada mountains, in Truckee, California, U.S. February 18, 2026.
Jenna Greene/Reuters
The assertion went on to say, “Sugar Bowl Academy is concentrated on supporting its athletes, college students, employees, and households by means of this tragedy. Most significantly, the Sugar Bowl Academy neighborhood will proceed to be there within the months and years forward for the households which have misplaced family members.”
The Nevada County Sheriff’s Workplace mentioned earlier Wednesday that 15 folks had been a part of the group of skiers who had been caught within the avalanche on Tuesday on the finish of a three-day guided journey.
Eight individuals are confirmed useless and one different particular person continues to be lacking, however presumed useless, the sheriff’s workplace mentioned. Of the useless and lacking, seven are ladies and two are males.
A street is roofed in snow throughout a storm on Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2026 in Truckee Calif. (AP Photographs/Brooke Hess-Homeier)
Brooke Hess-homeier/AP
Six folks survived the avalanche — 4 males and two ladies — and had been rescued by crews after sheltering below a tarp for hours amid “extremely harmful” situations, authorities mentioned.
The tragedy is the deadliest U.S. avalanche in 45 years, second solely to an avalanche that killed 11 folks on Washington’s Mt. Rainer in 1981.
A spokesperson for Nevada County Sheriff’s Workplace didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
