Tiburon resident among eight killed in avalanche near Lake Tahoe

Kate Morse, a 45-year-old Tiburon resident and biotech executive, was among eight people killed Feb. 17 when an avalanche struck a group of backcountry skiers near Castle Peak in Nevada County — the deadliest avalanche ever recorded in California and among the deadliest in U.S. history.

Kate Morse (via LinkedIn)

Morse most recently served as vice president of commercial strategy at Septerna, a South San Francisco-based biotechnology company, according to her LinkedIn profile. She was one of eight close friends on a professionally guided Presidents Day weekend ski trip to remote huts northwest of Truckee. The group was skiing back to the trailhead on the final morning of the three-day trip when the slide struck about 11:30 a.m.

Morse spent more than 20 years in the life-sciences industry. Before joining Septerna, she held senior roles at Genentech, where she worked in U.S. commercial sales and marketing from 2010 to 2018; Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical; Agios Pharmaceuticals; and Vir Biotechnology, where she rose to vice president of commercial. She earned an MBA from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth, according to LinkedIn. She is survived by husband Eric Morse and their three children. Friends and colleagues have organized a meal train to support the family.

‘Devastated beyond words’

Fifteen skiers made the trip: 11 clients and four guides from Blackbird Mountain Guides, a Truckee-based touring company. Six survived — one man and five women, ages 30 to 55, according to the Nevada County Sheriff’s Office. Two were hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries; one has since been released.

The bodies of eight victims have been located on the mountain but have not been recovered; a ninth skier remains missing and is presumed dead. Three of the four guides died.

The group had been staying at the Frog Lake Huts, backcountry cabins at roughly 7,600 feet elevation near Donner Summit operated by the Truckee Donner Land Trust. Castle Peak sits near the Nevada-Placer county line; both counties responded to the disaster. A skier spotted the oncoming slide before it hit, according to a survivor account shared by Nevada County Sheriff Shannan Moon.

Survivors immediately attempted to dig out their companions. Nevada County Undersheriff Sam Brown told CBS News the skiers “went into, I think, frantic mode of trying to find their friends and partners. And they were ultimately able to unbury three individuals who did not survive.”

The families of six victims, including Morse, released a joint statement Feb. 19 through spokesperson Jess Weaver of JVP Communications. The statement identified the other five as Danielle Keatley, 44, of Larkspur; Caroline Sekar, 45, of San Francisco; Liz Clabaugh, 52, of Boise, Idaho, who was Sekar’s sister; Carrie Atkin, 46, of Norden; and Kate Vitt, 43, of Greenbrae. Three additional victims have not been publicly identified. Mill Valley Mayor Max Perrey confirmed some victims were from his city. All six named victims were mothers, the statement said.

“We are devastated beyond words,” the statement read. “Our focus right now is supporting our children through this incredible tragedy and honoring the lives of these extraordinary women. They were all mothers, wives and friends, all of whom connected through the love of the outdoors. They were passionate, skilled skiers who cherished time together in the mountains.”

The families said the trip had been organized well in advance and that the women were experienced backcountry skiers, trained and equipped with avalanche safety gear. They thanked Nevada County Search and Rescue, Tahoe Nordic Search and Rescue and other responding agencies.

“We are heartbroken and are doing our best to care for one another and our families in the way we know these women would have wanted,” the statement read. “We are asking for privacy and space as our families grieve this sudden and profound loss.”

Conditions and rescue

The Sierra Avalanche Center had issued an avalanche watch Feb. 15, the morning the trip began, as a major storm moved into the Sierra Nevada. By the day of the slide, the danger rating at Castle Peak had reached 4 on a 5-point scale. The avalanche was classified as a 2.5 on a separate scale measuring the destructive potential of moving debris — between a level that buries a person and one that buries a house, according to the Nevada County Sheriff’s Office.

The rescue operation required extraordinary precautions. “We sent two teams in from two directions,” Brown told CBS News. “We needed a rescue team for those teams, in the event that an avalanche was triggered.”

As of Feb. 19, bodies had not been brought down from the mountain due to continuing blizzard conditions, but recovery efforts would continue into the weekend, the Nevada County Sheriff’s Office said.

Placer County Sheriff Wayne Woo told CNN, “We’re kind of at the will of Mother Nature at this point.”

The Tahoe National Forest closed all lands and trails in the Castle Peak area to the public through March 15, citing snowpack instability and the need to preserve first-responder access.

Guides and investigation

Blackbird Mountain Guides founder Zeb Blais said in a statement that all four guides were certified avalanche safety instructors and members of the American Institute for Avalanche Research and Education. The company launched an internal investigation.

“We don’t have all the answers yet, and it may be some time before we do,” Blais said. “This was an enormous tragedy, and the saddest event our team has ever experienced. In addition to mourning the loss of six clients, we also mourn the loss of three highly experienced members of our guide team.”

California’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health has launched a separate investigation into the company to determine whether state workplace safety laws were violated. Moon said authorities will also investigate why guides proceeded with the trip despite the avalanche forecast.

One of the victims was married to a member of one of the rescue teams dispatched to the area, Woo said, making the search and recovery effort particularly difficult for responders.

Gov. Gavin Newsom, who lives in Marin, said at a press conference that some of his “wife’s old family friends” were among those on the trip.

“These were some experienced guides that were out there, and that’s what’s even more concerning and disturbing,” he said. His office declined to elaborate, according to the Associated Press.

Reach Executive Editor Kevin Hessel at 415-435-2652.