The string of good avalanche luck has run out: The body of missing Lake Tahoe skier Christopher Trethaway was found this morning in slide debris near Emerald Bay on Tahoe’s southwest shore. After an unusually malignant early season that saw 32 deaths in North America, it’s been more than a month since snow slides claimed a life.

Trethaway, 39, was reported missing Sunday evening and his car was found parked at the Bayview trailhead, with every indication that he’d headed into the backcountry alone. An initial hasty search found nothing before darkness. The search resumed this morning with 60 rescuers and avalanche dogs—by 9:25, they found clothing and gear in the Maggie’s Peaks area and shortly thereafter the dogs helped find his body.

The Sierra Crest has received a foot of snow in the last 24 hours along with strong winds—44 mph average and gusts to 83. The new snow was heavy—two to three inches of water in 12-15 inches of snow. This morning’s advisory from the Sierra Avalanche Center said, “This new snow and the strong southwest winds formed dense wind slabs and heavy cornices on open, leeward slopes above and below treeline. Observations in the Mt. Judah area showed that these wind slabs had trouble bonding to the snow below them. By mid afternoon ski cuts released several, 8-12-inch-crown avalanches on wind-loaded, N-NE-facing, 35-37-degree test-slopes between 7400′ and 8200′.”

The current forecast calls the hazard mostly CONSIDERABLE with areas of HIGH. If you’re heading O.B., three particular concerns stand out: the wind slabs from the recent storm, a weak faceted layer atop January crusts, and the potential for rain saturating the snowpack. Be careful, kids. And remember, you can get almost every forecast in North America with just one click here.

Public domain photo by U.S. government. Maps by Google.

Tagged as: avalanche