What Went Wrong at Castle Peak? Inside California's Deadliest Avalanche

Описание: On the morning of February 17, 2026, fifteen people set out through the Sierra Nevada on the final leg of a guided backcountry ski trip. Nine of them didn't make it home. According to California records, it is the deadliest avalanche in the state's history.
This video covers everything we currently know — the group, the snowpack, the avalanche warnings that were in place, the rescue operation, the recovery, and the investigation now underway. All background footage was filmed during my own time riding across the Lake Tahoe resorts.
This isn't the kind of story anyone wants to report on. But it's an important one, and it deserves to be told properly.

THE FACTS AT A GLANCE
📍 Location: Castle Peak, north of Donner Pass, Sierra Nevada, California
📅 Date: February 17, 2026
👥 Group: 15 people — 4 guides, 11 clients — on a guided 3-day hut trip run by Blackbird Mountain Guides
❄️ Avalanche danger rating at 5:00 AM that morning: HIGH — Level 4 of 5
💔 Outcome: 9 fatalities, 6 survivors

SOURCES
Sierra Avalanche Center | Nevada County Sheriff's Office | Placer County Sheriff's Office | CNN | NBC News | ABC News | ABC7 San Francisco | KTVU FOX 2 | CBS Sacramento | CapRadio | NBC Bay Area | SKI Magazine | TIME | PBS NewsHour | The Mercury News | SF Standard | SnowBrains | Teton Gravity Research

If you're heading into the backcountry this season — or any season — please check your local avalanche centre forecast before you go. The language in these warnings is not ambiguous. It is there for a reason.
Our thoughts remain with the families of those lost, and with the six people who made it off that mountain.