By Steve Gorman

LOS ANGELES, Feb 17 (Reuters) – Ten skiers were missing and another six were stranded in an avalanche that struck a backcountry slope near Lake Tahoe in the midst of heavy snow in California’s Sierra Nevada mountains on Tuesday, authorities said.

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 U.S. 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 backcountry ski region, the sheriff’s statement said.

Rescue ski teams were dispatched to the avalanche zone from the Boreal Mountain Ski Resort and Tahoe Donner’s Alder Creek Adventure Center, and dozens of emergency personnel had arrived at the scene.

Weather conditions remain highly hazardous in the Sierra backcountry slopes, with additional avalanche activity expected through Tuesday night and into Wednesday, according to the statement.

California Governor Gavin Newsom was briefed on the avalanche, and state authorities were “coordinating an all-hands search-and-rescue effort” in conjunction with local emergency teams, his office said in a posting on X.

(Reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Editing by Edwina Gibbs and Saad Sayeed)

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