A new report offers the most detailed account yet of the avalanche which killed nine people near Truckee in February. It was the deadliest avalanche in modern California history.
The report was commissioned by Blackbird Mountain Guides, the company which led the trip. Three of its guides and six clients died .
It found the group was not on a steep slope when the slide hit. They were on flat ground, moving toward a route mapped out to avoid avalanche areas.
But a creek which would normally be frozen over was running, after weeks of drought, meaning the group could not get across as planned. The avalanche buried them just 50 feet short of their planned route.
The report says the guides likely never realized they were standing in the path of an avalanche.
A criminal investigation and a state workplace safety review are both ongoing.