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Tahoe avalanche: What causes snow slopes to collapse? A physicist and skier explains, with tips for surviving

  • Written by Nathalie Vriend, Associate Professor of Thermo Fluid Sciences, University of Colorado Boulder

A deadly avalanche buried a group of backcountry skiers and their guides near Lake Tahoe in California’s Sierra Nevada as an intense storm brought heavy snow to the region on Feb. 17, 2026. Six of the skiers were rescued, but eight others didn’t survive and another was missing. The region was under an avalanche warning rated high...

Read more: Tahoe avalanche: What causes snow slopes to collapse? A physicist and skier explains, with tips...

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