2 skiers dead at Heavenly Mountain, 4th and 5th deaths this month at Tahoe resorts
Two people died in separate skiing incidents Friday morning at Heavenly Mountain Resort’s Boulder Lodge, according to the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office in Nevada.
Authorities said the incidents are not related, and the two individuals are not believed to have known each other.
Both individuals were transported to the base area by ski patrol crews and life-saving measures were attempted, but both were pronounced dead at the scene, the Sheriff’s Office said.
Friday’s tragedy represents the fourth and fifth deaths at Lake Tahoe-area resorts this month, following three deaths near Northstar California Resort in Truckee — including a 53-year-old Bay Area man, a 26-year-old Los Angeles man and a 21-year-old San Jose State University student.
Both Heavenly and Northstar are owned and operated by Colorado-headquartered Vail Resorts. Heavenly straddles the California-Nevada border on the south side of Lake Tahoe, near South Lake Tahoe and Stateline, Nevada. Northstar is on the north side of the lake, south of Truckee.
Four of the five deaths — both at Heavenly and the two most recent at Northstar — came amid a winter storm this week that dumped multiple feet of snow in the Sierra Nevada mountains and led to an avalanche near Castle Peak that killed eight people on a backcountry ski outing and left one missing. Dangerous avalanche conditions were expected to continue in the region through Friday, according to the Sierra Avalanche Center.
The bodies of the eight remain at the site. The ninth person, still missing, is presumed to have died in the football-field-sized slide, the deadliest avalanche in California history.
Weather conditions and continued fears of another avalanche, have hampered recovery efforts, Nevada County Sheriff’s Office said in a Friday statement. Among the victims were mothers of children in the competitive ski program at Sugar Bowl Academy, and close friends who bonded over their love of backcountry skiing. Three guides from the Truckee-based Blackbird Mountain Guides, were also killed. A guide and five skiers survived the slide. Two were recovering at a hospital.
This story was originally published February 20, 2026 at 7:41 PM with the headline "2 skiers dead at Heavenly Mountain, 4th and 5th deaths this month at Tahoe resorts."
