Rescuers trekked through blizzard conditions to reach a group of skiers after a dangerous avalanche on Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2026, in the Sierra Nevada.

LATEST Feb. 18, 2:30 p.m. Officials confirmed that the avalanche near Lake Tahoe on Tuesday that killed at least eight people was the deadliest in California since modern record keeping began. 

The previous record was the 1982 avalanche in Alpine Meadows, which killed seven people, Theresa Graven, a spokesperson for the Colorado Avalanche Information Center, confirmed to SFGATE. The center, which tracks avalanche fatalities in the U.S., has data going back to 1950.

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The recent avalanche, which left eight skiers dead and one still missing near Lake Tahoe, is also the second deadliest for the entire U.S. since 1950. The deadliest avalanche for the U.S. occurred in 1981 and killed 11 people on Mount Rainier in Washington, according to the Colorado Avalanche Information Center.

“This is an incredibly deadly avalanche, and avalanche accidents that involve this many people are rare,” Ethan Greene, director of the avalanche center, told SFGATE. 

Feb. 18, 12:50 p.m. Eight of the nine missing skiers caught in an avalanche in the Castle Park area of Tahoe have been confirmed dead, and one remains missing, according to Nevada County Sheriff Shannan Moon.

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Rescuers are still working to recover their bodies, Moon said in a Wednesday morning press conference.

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“We did have conversation with the families of the folks ... that are still outstanding and let them know that our mission has went from a rescue to a recovery,” Moon said. “It’s a difficult conversation to have with loved ones.”

The sheriff’s office is........

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