10 skiers missing, at least six stranded in California avalanche

As many as 10 skiers were missing and at least six others were stranded and awaiting rescue in heavy snow after an avalanche struck a backcountry slope in California's Sierra Nevada mountains, United States, on Tuesday, authorities said, Report informs via Reuters.

Hours after the late-morning calamity, as darkness fell and a nearby highway was closed due to zero visibility in the midst of a winter storm, a spokesperson for the Nevada County Sheriff's Office, Captain Russell Greene, said rescue teams had yet to reach the avalanche site.

"It's going to be a slow, tedious process because they also have to be very careful accessing the area due to the fact that the avalanche danger is still very high," Greene said in an interview with Sacramento-based television station KCRA-TV.

The avalanche swept the Castle Peak area of Truckee, California, about 10 miles north of Lake Tahoe, at about 11:30 a.m. Pacific time, engulfing a group of 16 skiers, according to a Facebook statement posted by the Nevada County Sheriff's Office.

The group consisted of four ski guides and 12 clients. At least six survived and remained at the avalanche site awaiting rescue, while the others were unaccounted for, the statement said.

If all 10 of the missing skiers should perish, the incident would rank among the deadliest single avalanches on record in the United States. The Colorado Avalanche Information Center has tallied six US avalanche fatalities so far this season.

Avalanches have claimed an average of 27 lives each winter in the United States over the past decade, the center reported.

A winter storm warning was in effect for much of northern California on Tuesday, with heavy snow forecast in the upper elevations of the Sierra Nevada.

The Sierra Avalanche Center had posted an alert before dawn on Tuesday, warning of a "high avalanche danger" in the ski region, the sheriff's statement said.