California avalanche was deadliest in US in 45 years
California avalanche was deadliest in US in 45 years
Natalie Neysa Alund, USA TODAY Wed, February 18, 2026 at 10:46 PM UTC
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The avalanche that killed at least eight people on Feb. 17 in California marked the deadliest natural disaster of its kind in the United States in nearly a half century.
A group of 15 skiers were caught in the avalanche in the Castle Peak area of the Sierra Nevada mountain range, northwest of Lake Tahoe. Six members of the group survived and were rescued. One skier was still missing as of Feb. 18 and is presumed dead, Nevada County Sheriff Shannan Moon said.
It was the deadliest avalanche in the U.S. in almost 45 years, according to the Colorado Avalanche Information Center (CIAC), which tracks avalanches across the nation. Eleven people were killed in an avalanche on June 21, 1981, while attempting to climb Mount Rainier in Washington state.
A rescue team departs to the site of an avalanche in a backcountry slope of California's Sierra Nevada mountains, where a group of skiers were stranded, in Nevada County, California, Feb. 17, 2026, in this still image from a video.
More recently, six climbers died in an avalanche on Mount Rainier on May 28, 2014. On April 20, 2013, five snowboarders were killed in an avalanche near Colorado's Loveland Pass.
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In the U.S., avalanches have claimed an average of 27 lives annually over the last 10 years, according to the CAIC.
What was the deadliest avalanche in US history?
The deadliest recorded avalanche in U.S. history occurred March 1, 1910, in Wellington, Washington, when a wall of snow swept two trains into a gorge near Stevens Pass in the Cascade Range, killing 96 people, according to the Seattle Times.
Natalie Neysa Alund is a senior reporter for USA TODAY. Reach her at [email protected] and follow her on X @nataliealund.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: What was the deadliest avalanche in US history?
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