Searchers Unable to Find Skier

Heavy snow hampered authorities Sunday in their search for a cross-country skier buried in an avalanche north of Lake Tahoe.

On Tahoe’s south shore, a cellphone was credited for saving the life of a snowboarder trapped in an avalanche near the Heavenly ski resort.

Nevada County sheriff’s deputies said the search for the missing skier was complicated by 2 to 3 feet of new snow since Thursday’s avalanche in a remote, rugged area west of Truckee and north of Donner Summit.

Searchers were having difficulty finding the avalanche’s precise path because of the new snow, deputies said.

Experts said avalanche victims have only a remote chance of surviving unless they are found within 30 minutes of the incident.

“It’s not a search for a live person. I would just think it’s recovery of a body,” said Doug Read of the Tahoe Nordic Search and Rescue Team.

Deputies said the missing skier was from Pacific Grove, but did not release his name or other details about him.

A companion escaped without injury, but could not contact authorities until Saturday afternoon because a blizzard and heavy snow prevented him from getting out of the mountainous backcountry.

Deputies said the companion spent two nights at a backcountry hut near Castle Peak.

He used a cellphone provided by other skiers to call for help.

Searchers used snowmobiles to reach the avalanche site about three miles north of Interstate 80 in the Tahoe National Forest.

To the south, snowboarder Steven Peck, 30, of South Lake Tahoe was rescued about 10 p.m. Saturday, five hours after being trapped in an avalanche near Heavenly.

Peck had been snowboarding in an out-of-bounds area at the resort when he was swept down a slope by an avalanche, said Shaun Thomas, operations leader of the Douglas County, Nev., Search and Rescue Team.

He used his cellphone to call 911, and a search began a short time later.

He was found unharmed.

Peck faces a $635 fine for boarding out of bounds, Thomas told the Tahoe Daily Tribune.

Read said the avalanches are a reminder of the backcountry’s potential danger after heavy snow.

“People are in areas where they shouldn’t be,” he said.

“During and right after a major storm you have to be very careful.”

A U.S. Forest Service avalanche advisory remains in effect in the Sierra backcountry above 6,000 feet between Sonora and Yuba passes.