The bodies of nine skiers have been recovered following an avalanche near Lake Tahoe, California.
Nevada County Sheriff Shannan Moon said the investigation is not formally over until all of search and rescue return to headquarters. Five bodies were found on Tuesday. Four were recovered on Saturday.
“While we wish we could have saved them all, we are grateful that we can bring them home,” Moon said.
On Saturday morning, California National Guard and California Highway Patrol helicopters were able to hoist the bodies from the mountain and deliver them to nearby snow trucks.
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Six people were rescued in Tuesday’s avalanche. A group of four guides and 11 guests was returning from a three-day cross-country ski trip to the Frog Lake huts near Castle Peak, an area near Donner Pass, when they were caught in an avalanche.
The group, led by Truckee, California-based Blackbird Mountain Guides, consisted of six men and nine women between the ages of 30 and 55.
A group of six survivors located three people buried in the avalanche before search-and-rescue crews arrived. Rescuers located another five victims when they arrived in the late afternoon. None of the five were found alive.
Of the six people rescued alive, one was a guide, and five were guests on the trip. Three were not able to walk due to injuries sustained in the slide, and two were taken to the hospital with serious injuries.
It was the deadliest avalanche in the United States since a slide killed 11 climbers on Mount Rainier, Washington, in 1981.
