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It’s been a deadly winter on California’s slopes, but the state has no idea how bad it really is.
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California's ski resorts face a deadly season, but the state still lacks a clear count of injuries and deaths. In February, several serious incidents hit major resorts, and an avalanche near Lake Tahoe killed nine backcountry skiers. CalMatters reports California does not track slope accidents. It also does not set a trigger for investigations. Reporters contacted more than two dozen resorts and got no data. Records from the U.S. Forest Service can take months. A father who lost his daughter pushed for reporting laws, but governors vetoed them. Experts say better data drives safer choices and smarter science.
Authorities looking into the deadly avalanche in California's Sierra Nevada will investigate whether criminal negligence played a role in the tragedy. A sheriff's office leading one of several investigations said Friday that it couldn't share more details, saying it is an open investigation. A California state agency that regulates workplace safety also is investigating Tuesday's avalanche that killed eight. One other person remains missing and is presumed dead. Among the questions being considered is why the tour company that organized the backcountry ski trip moved forward in the face of a powerful storm. Crews are hoping to make progress Friday in their efforts to recover the victims.
Authorities say the bodies of eight backcountry skiers have been found and one remains missing after an avalanche near Lake Tahoe in California. Search and rescue crews were dispatched to the Castle Peak area of the Sierra Nevada after a 911 call reporting an avalanche Tuesday morning. Six others were found alive. Heavy snow and the threat of additional avalanches slowed the rescue effort in the mountains near Castle Peak, northwest of Lake Tahoe. Authorities have told the families the mission has moved from rescue to recovery. They say the eight victims were found fairly close together, and that three of them were discovered by the skiers who survived.
Since Mikaela Shiffrin burst onto the Olympic scene in Sochi in 2014, I’ve been torturing anyone who will listen with the same joke: She’s Shi…
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For San Mateo County’s two seasonal ski and board shops, the busy season is just beginning — riders and skiers are trickling in to make tune-u…
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Ashish Gupta remembers the days when he was carrying his three kids’ skis up the mountain. That was 10-plus years ago, but times have now chan…
A powerful blizzard that closed highways and ski resorts has moved through the Sierra Nevada but forecasters warn that more snow is on the way for Northern California mountains. A stretch of Interstate 80 from west of Lake Tahoe to the Nevada state line finally reopened to all but big rigs late Monday morning after a lengthy closure. Blizzard warnings have expired but a new system is expected to bring periods of moderate mountain snow. Several ski resorts were closed all weekend. Power has been restored to thousands who lost service but some outages continue.
North Korea welcomes Russian tourists, likely first to visit the isolated country since the pandemic
The first group of Russian tourists to visit North Korea since the pandemic has arrived in its capital, Pyongyang, as the isolated country offers tours to Russians who face obstacles to travel abroad during the war in Ukraine. South Korea's government says they are likely the first tourists from any country to enter North Korea since COVID-19. The tour underscores deepening cooperation between Moscow and Pyongyang, following a meeting last September between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Russian President Vladimir Putin at a cosmodrome in Russia's Far East. The Russian tourists will visit the capital and then go skiing.
A day after an avalanche killed a skier and injured three others, the California ski resorts Palisades Tahoe and Alpine Meadows are reopening with a focus on safety. The Palisades Tahoe operations blog says Thursday is a rigorous snow-safety morning for both resorts. A storm blanketed the area Wednesday when the avalanche hit around 9:30 a.m. on an expert black diamond run served by the famous KT-22 lift at Palisades Tahoe. The Placer County Sheriff's Office has identified the person killed as 66-year-old Kenneth Kidd, a resident of nearby Truckee and Point Reyes. Three others were injured.
