These are the 9 skiers who died in the Castle Peak avalanche near Tahoe

Nicole Buss, The Sacramento Bee on Feb 23, 2026

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The Nevada County Sheriff’s Office on Saturday released the names of the nine people who lost their lives in the Castle Peak avalanche.

Fifteen backcountry skiers were caught in the avalanche reported Tuesday in the Castle Peak area near Donner Pass. The 15 included a group of tight-knit mothers connected to Sugar Bowl Academy, an elite ski and snowboarding prep school, along with four experienced guides from Blackbird Mountain Guides.

Six of those skiers — one of the guides and five of the guides’ clients — survived and were rescued. Authorities on Wednesday confirmed eight of the remaining skiers had died, with the ninth missing and presumed dead.

By Saturday afternoon, deputies said recovery teams had located all nine victims from the avalanche reported Tuesday, recovering the final body just before 11 a.m. Saturday.

Castle Peak avalanche victims

•Andrew Alissandratos, 34, of Verdi, Nevada

•Carrie Atkin, 46, of Soda Springs, Calif.

•Nicole Choo, 42, of South Lake Tahoe, Calif.

•Lizabeth Clabaugh, 52, of Boise, Idaho

•Michael Henry, 30, from Soda Springs, Calif.

•Danielle Keatley, 44, of Soda Springs and Larkspur, Calif.

•Kate Morse, 45, of Soda Springs and Tiburon, Calif.

•Caroline Sekar, 45, of Soda Springs and San Francisco, Calif.

•Katherine Vitt, 43, of Greenbrae, Calif.

In a statement to news media, the families of Atkin, Clabaugh, Keatley, Morse, Sekar and Vitt said the women shared a love of the outdoors.

“They were all mothers, wives and friends, all of whom connected through the love of the outdoors,” the families said to the New York Times. “They were passionate, skilled skiers who cherished time together in the mountains.

Alissandratos, Choo, and Henry were Blackbird Mountain Guides.

Zeb Blais, the founder of Blackbird Mountain Guides, said the loss of the clients and staff affected him deeply.

“In addition to mourning the loss of six clients, we also mourn the loss of three highly experienced members of our guide team,” Blais said in a statement. “We are doing what we can to support the families who lost so much, and the members of our team who lost treasured friends and colleagues.”

Authorities detail mountain recovery

The avalanche was reported about 11:30 a.m. Tuesday, after dispatchers received a call that multiple skiers had been buried. Family members and Blackbird Mountain Guides officials said the group was on the last day of a three-day trip to the Frog Lake huts near Castle Peak and that the skiers were heading back to the trailhead when the slope collapsed.

Survivors initially recovered three members of their own group before rescuers arrived, authorities said. Ski teams reached the area using two routes and made contact with the survivors at 5:36 p.m. on Tuesday. Crews located five additional victims that evening, but worsening weather and avalanche conditions forced them to pause recovery operations.

Lt. Dennis Haack, the Sheriff’s Office incident commander, said the rescuers could not safely enter the area until the avalanche risk was reduced. Teams remained on standby Wednesday and Thursday as storms moved through.

On Friday, authorities worked with Pacific Gas & Electric Co. and the California Highway Patrol to conduct avalanche mitigation using helicopters. PG&E deployed water drops using what officials described as a “bamboo bucket” system to stabilize the snowpack.

After mitigation flights, search-and-rescue members were flown into the site by CHP helicopter. The California National Guard later assisted with hoist operations using a Black Hawk helicopter

Each victim was airlifted from the field to Sno-Cats staged at the Frog Lake huts before being taken to the sheriff’s staging area, where the chief deputy coroner was waiting.

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