One of the world’s foremost avalanche experts said the factors involved in the deaths of at least eight skiers in a major slide in California’s Sierra Nevada Mountains will come from the survivors.

But Bruce Tremper — the former director of the Utah Avalanche Center and author of the book “Staying Alive in Avalanche Terrain” — cautioned that it would not “be fair” at this point to second-guess the decisions made by the group’s guides.

“The thing I do know is, in most avalanche accidents, everybody wants to point fingers. Everybody wants to say, ‘Should they have known better? Did they make a mistake?'” Tremper told ABC News.

Tremper said a myriad of factors could have played a role in why the group ended up in the path of the avalanche that overwhelmed them on Tuesday morning in the Castle Peak area of the Sierra Nevada Mountains.

“We really don’t know until they interview the people [who survived] and the information starts coming out,” Tremper said.

He said it’s possible that the route the group chose had been declared safe in the past during days when avalanche danger is high, like it was on Tuesday morning.

“I think it’s just as plausible that they were doing something that was normally safe, but it was just an unprecedented event and that they just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. It’s just bad luck.”

The bodies of seven women and a man killed in the avalanche were recovered, but ongoing inclement weather has prevented search crews from transporting the victims from the backcountry to a morgue in the nearby town of Truckee, Nevada County Sheriff Shannan Moon said at a news conference on Wednesday. A search continues for a second man who was with the group and is presumed dead, Moon said.

Three guides from the Blackbird Mountain Guides, who were leading the group back from a three-day backcountry skiing expedition, were killed in the avalanche, according to the company.

The avalanche happened near the Frog Lake Backcountry Huts in the Castle Peak area, northwest of Truckee, officials said.

Six members of the ski group, including a fourth guide, survived the avalanche and were rescued Tuesday evenings, authorities said.

In a statement Wednesday night, Zeb Blais, founder of Blackbird Mountain Guides, said the three employees killed in the avalanche were “highly experienced members of our guide team.”

Blais said all of the guides were trained or certified in backcountry skiing by the American Mountain Guides Association (AMGA). He said the guides were also instructors with the American Institute of Avalanche Research and Education (AIARE), which he described as “the industry standard for avalanche education.”

In his statement, Blais did not comment on the fateful decisions made by the guides.

“In addition, guides in the field are in communication with senior guides at our base, to discuss conditions and routing based on conditions,” Blais said.

The deadly incident came amid “high” avalanche danger warnings in the backcountry issued on Tuesday by the Sierra Avalanche Center, raising questions about why the group decided to trek out of the rugged area and not stay sheltered in the Frog Lake Backcountry Huts until the major winter storm passed.

“We’re still in conversation with them on the decision factors that they made. But, definitely, a heed for everyone,” Sheriff Moon said on Wednesday.

Blais said his company has suspended all field operations through Feb. 22 and “may extend into the next week or two.”

“There is still a lot that we’re learning about what happened. It’s too soon to draw conclusions, but investigations are underway,” said Blais. “We don’t have all the answers yet, and it may be some time before we do.”

After learning of the guides’ credentials and training, Tremper said, “You can’t get better than that.”

“That means they had very good training, they were very good at what they do. They were highly trained,” Tremper said.

Tremper said the cause of the disaster will remain unknown to the public until investigators release their report detailing accounts from the survivors. He warned against assuming the guides were reckless.

“Everybody wants to answer the same question and it’s not a fair way to approach this because when you look backwards in time, it’s really, really easy to see the chain of events that occurred that created the accident. But you can never do that looking forward in time,” Tremper said.

He said there’s a lot more that goes into being a backcountry guide than meets the eye.

“To be able to make good decisions, nobody can just do it alone. You work as part of a team and part of a system,” Tremper said. “So, the team means you’re talking to all the other guides. Like, if it’s a helicopter ski guiding operation, you might sit down with 20 different guides every morning and every evening and do briefing sessions.”

Tremper said that in his 29-year career as an avalanche forecaster, he has investigated roughly 100 avalanche accidents.

“In almost all of the accidents that I’ve investigated … when I put myself in their shoes, it’s like: ‘Well, I could have done that.’ In fact, I have done that before — but I’ve gotten away with it.'”

DETROIT — Police looking for a missing person found the bodies of three men in a Detroit house, authorities said Thursday.

The victims, ages 65, 66 and 72, were bludgeoned and stabbed late Tuesday or early Wednesday, Assistant Police Chief Charles Fitzgerald said.

“It was a brutal scene inside — just awful,” he said.

A motive was not immediately known. Investigators were are seeking tips and searching for a suspect.

“The gentleman that lived in that location opened up his house to a lot of folks. They come and go,” Fitzgerald told reporters. “Unfortunately there has been some speculation that possibly some drugs were being used in the location, but we can’t confirm at this point.”

The victims were “left in a basement area covered in dirty clothing; one person was covered with a carpet,” Fitzgerald said.

A neighbor, Thomas Barnes, said one man was a veteran who suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder.

Barnes is president of his block club, which had a recent name change.

“It’s now called Harmony Village,” Barnes told The Detroit News. “Ironic, huh?”

LONDON — Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor — formerly known as Prince Andrew and the younger brother of King Charles III — was arrested on Thursday on suspicion of misconduct in public office.

In a statement, Thames Valley Police said they had “arrested a man in his sixties from Norfolk on suspicion of misconduct in public office and are carrying out searches at addresses in Berkshire and Norfolk.”

“The man remains in police custody at this time. We will not be naming the arrested man, as per national guidance,” the statement said.

Photos from Wood Farm on the Sandringham estate in eastern England showed what appeared to be police officers arriving in several unmarked vehicles. Thursday marks Andrew’s 66th birthday.

In a statement issued on Thursday, Charles said, “I have learned with the deepest concern the news about Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and suspicion of misconduct in public office.”

“What now follows is the full, fair and proper process by which this issue is investigated in the appropriate manner and by the appropriate authorities. In this, as I have said before, they have our full and wholehearted support and co-operation,” Charles added.

“Let me state clearly: the law must take its course. As this process continues, it would not be right for me to comment further on this matter. Meanwhile, my family and I will continue in our duty and service to you all.”

Andrew’s arrest on Thursday follows the emergence of documents detailing communication between Andrew and the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Several emails released by the U.S. Justice Department showed Epstein’s correspondence with a Andrew’s aide David Stern and suggest the royal may have planned to use his role as a special U.K. representative for trade and investment to further his own business interests.

The emails in question date back to 2010. Andrew served as a British trade envoy from 2001 until 2011, when Buckingham Palace announced that he would give up the role following criticism over his friendship with controversial figures, including Epstein.

Andrew has previously denied wrongdoing with respect to Epstein.

Thames Valley Police told ABC News last week that they were assessing reports of Andrew’s alleged misconduct in office as trade envoy.

“We can confirm receipt of this report and are assessing the information in line with our established procedures,” a Thames Valley Police spokesperson said in a statement on Feb. 9.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

ABC News’ Zoe Magee, Angeline Jane Bernabe, James Hill and Melanie Schmitz contributed to this report.

The group of skiers involved in the deadly avalanche in California’s Sierra Nevada Mountains on Tuesday includes parents, mostly mothers, of students at a local school and ski academy, according to a source involved in the search and rescue effort and a statement from the school. 

“Multiple members of the Sugar Bowl Academy community and others with strong connections to Sugar Bowl, Donner Summit, and the backcountry community died in an avalanche on Tuesday, February 17, 2026,” a statement from the school said. 

Sugar Bowl Academy is a private independent school boarding and day school designed for competitive skiers. 

A source involved in the search and rescue effort on the scene told ABC News that most of both the deceased and surviving victims of the avalanche are parents connected to the school. 

The parents’ kids are on a winter break from school, according to sources familiar. 

Authorities have not publicly identified any of the victims. 

Emergency responders “are still working to recover all of the victims and are not at this time sharing the personal details of the victims and the survivors out of respect for the families affected,” the school said in the statement. “Sugar Bowl Academy is similarly not sharing the names of the victims and survivors out of respect for the families affected.”

The statement went on to say, “Sugar Bowl Academy is focused on supporting its athletes, students, staff, and families through this tragedy. Most importantly, the Sugar Bowl Academy community will continue to be there in the months and years ahead for the families that have lost loved ones.”

The Nevada County Sheriff’s Office said earlier Wednesday that 15 people were part of the group of skiers who were caught in the avalanche on Tuesday at the end of a three-day guided trip. 

Eight people are confirmed dead and one other person is still missing, but presumed dead, the sheriff’s office said. Of the dead and missing, seven are women and two are men. 

Six people survived the avalanche — four men and two women — and were rescued by crews after sheltering under a tarp for hours amid “highly dangerous” conditions, authorities said.  

The tragedy is the deadliest U.S. avalanche in 45 years, second only to an avalanche that killed 11 people on Washington’s Mt. Rainer in 1981.

A spokesperson for Nevada County Sheriff’s Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

A man has been detained by police after allegedly exhibiting “unruly and unlawful behavior towards other customers” that caused a flight to return to Houston shortly after taking off, according to Delta Airlines and law enforcement. 

The flight, departing from William P. Hobby Airport, was headed to Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.

“The safety of our customers and crew is paramount, and Delta has zero tolerance for unruly behavior. We apologize to our customers for this experience and delay in their travels,” Delta said in a statement on Wednesday.

After taking off, it landed at the William P. Hobby Airport in Houston around 5:40 a.m. local time, according to the FAA. The flight was only in the air for about 15 minutes.

Earlier reports and air traffic controller audio alleged the man was attempting to breach the cockpit of a Delta Airlines flight but Delta said he “did not make contact with or attempt to access the flight deck,” in a statement to ABC News.

A call reporting that “apparently an individual tried to gain entry into a cockpit” was made at around 5:35 a.m., according to the Houston Police Department. Police officers were dispatched to Gate 32 at the airport, where multiple police cars surrounded the aircraft, according to KTRK.

On air traffic controller audio, one of the pilots can be heard telling controllers, “we had a passenger get up and try to access the cockpit,” and that “he assaulted another passenger,” who the pilot said they wanted to get checked out.  

Video reviewed and verified by ABC News shows a passenger whose hands are bound being escorted off a Delta flight 2557 on Wednesday morning in Houston.

The FAA said the flight “returned safely” to Hobby “after the crew reported a passenger disturbance.” The FAA said it will investigate the incident. 

There were 85 passengers and five crew on board the plane. The flight re-departed and arrived in Atlanta, about 90 minutes behind schedule, Delta said.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

Members of the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday are set to depose retail billionaire Leslie Wexner, whose wealth fueled Jeffrey Epstein’s fortune before an alleged multimillion dollar theft ended their relationship, newly revealed documents suggest. 

After learning that Epstein stole hundreds of millions from him in 2007, Wexner opted to quietly resolve the issue with Epstein, who at the time was being investigated by federal prosecutors for both sex crimes and money laundering, according to emails and a memo later drafted by prosecutors. 

A vitally important person in the transformation of Epstein from college dropout to multimillionaire adviser to the ultra-wealthy, Wexner — a businessman behind brands like Victoria’s Secret and Bath & Body Works — has received substantial scrutiny over his association with Epstein since Epstein’s arrest and death by suicide in 2019. 

According to prepared remarks reviewed by ABC News, Wexner plans to tell members of the committee that he “never witnessed nor had any knowledge of Epstein’s criminal activity.” 

“The other life he led, that we now know was full of unthinkable crimes, he most carefully and fully hid from me. He knew that I never would have tolerated his horrible behavior. Not any of it. At no time did I ever witness the side of Epstein’s life for which he is now infamous,” the prepared remarks stated. 

Wexner noted that he “completely and irrevocably cut ties” with Epstein after learning about an investigation into his sexual abuse and realizing that he stole “vast sums” from his family. 

“Epstein agreed to, and did, return a substantial amount of money, even while continuing to maintain his total innocence of any wrongdoing, never dropping the con. In light of his eventual guilty plea and deception of our family, we completely severed our relationship with Epstein. Epstein was permanently and irrevocably out of my life,” Wexner noted. 

Wexner called Epstein a “master manipulator” and claimed he never suspected or heard anything about Epstein abusing minors. 

“Once I learned of his abusive conduct and theft from my family, I never spoke with Epstein again. Never,” Wexner said. 

Years after the two severed ties, prosecutors in New York initially included Wexner in a group of potential co-conspirators to be investigated after Epstein was arrested in July 2019, though they later determined there was “limited evidence regarding his involvement,” according to a recently-released 2019 email from an FBI agent who was part of the sex crimes investigation.

“The Assistant U.S. Attorney told Mr. Wexner’s legal counsel in 2019 that Mr. Wexner was neither a co-conspirator nor target in any respect,” a spokesperson for Wexner told ABC News in a statement following the release of Epstein files by the Department of Justice last month. “Mr. Wexner cooperated fully by providing background information on Epstein and was never contacted again.” 

Lawyers for Wexner, in a meeting with federal prosecutors about two weeks after Epstein’s arrest, claimed that Wexner “had no knowledge of any inappropriate or unlawful activity with young women by Epstein” and that Wexner’s dealings with Epstein were “more professional than social,” according to a December 2019 prosecution memo summarizing the investigation into Epstein’s potential collaborators.

Wexner’s attorneys said the two ended their relationship after Wexner learned that “Epstein had stolen or otherwise misappropriated several hundred million dollars” from him, according to the memo. The memo stated that Epstein personally profited by repeatedly purchasing properties for the Wexners before buying them for himself at a fraction of the cost.  

“The Wexners then decided to cut off Epstein,” prosecutors wrote in the memo summarizing their discussion with Wexner’s counsel.

‘All I can say is I feel sorry’

Epstein was — throughout 2007 — the subject of an ongoing investigation in Florida into sex crimes involving minors that had expanded to probe potential financial crimes and money laundering. The Wexners did not report the alleged theft of their funds to law enforcement and instead resolved the matter privately, according to prosecutors. 

Wexner was contacted by federal prosecutors in Florida as early as August 2007 regarding the Epstein investigation, according to handwritten notes released last month by the Department of Justice. Notes from an August 2007 call between an attorney for Wexner and a DOJ representative suggest that prosecutors inquired about Wexner’s interactions with his “money manager,” documentation of their meetings, and whether Wexner ever visited Epstein’s home. 

At the time, prosecutors had begun to broaden their investigation to not only cover sex crimes but also potential money laundering and wire fraud, documents suggest. 

“She just wanted to know if Les has been to my house,” Epstein emailed his associate Ghislaine Maxwell in August 2007, in an apparent reference to the prosecutor’s contact with Wexner’s lawyer, according to emails obtained by DDOSecrets, a transparency website that received a cache of Epstein emails that were not included in the DOJ’s disclosures. 

“That’s odd?? Why” Maxwell responded. 

“It’s bulls—, she just wanted to let him know about an investigation is my guess,” Epstein wrote back. 

It is unclear if Wexner was aware of the investigation into financial crimes when his attorney was contacted, but in the following months, Wexner began the process of ending Epstein’s role as his money manager, according to emails in the DDOSecrets collection between lawyers for Epstein and Wexner.  

“All I can say is I feel sorry. You violated your own number 1 rule … Always be careful,” Wexler emailed Epstein in 2008 days before Epstein reported to prison for soliciting underage sex, according to documents included in DDOSecrets collection. 

“No excuse,” Epstein replied. 

‘She pretty much wants everything’

According to a 2019 prosecution memo, Wexner’s wife began to look into Epstein’s management of their money after Epstein claimed he was “having legal problems involving an overly aggressive police chief and some sort of massage.” 

According to the memo, Abigail Wexner discovered Epstein “misappropriated a significant amount of the family’s funds,” including by purchasing property on the Wexners’ behalf before selling it to himself at a fraction of the cost. 

“When confronted, Epstein tried to convince Wexner’s wife that she did not understand the financials and insisted that he had the Wexners’ best interests at heart,” the memo said. “The Wexners did not want to bring unnecessary public attention to the issue, so they withdrew the power of attorney, and hired counsel to negotiate a private settlement with Epstein.” 

Epstein resigned from the foundation and all of his roles with Wexner in September 2007, according to an independent review conducted in 2020 of Epstein’s involvement with the Wexner Foundation. 

“Mr. Wexner terminated Epstein as his financial advisor, revoked his power of attorney, and directed that he be removed from all bank accounts,” a spokesperson for Wexner said in a statement to ABC News.

As early as October 2007, emails indicate that Epstein began transferring assets back to Wexner. 

“When speaking with [Abigail Wexner], she pretty much wants everything,” Wexner’s financial controller told an attorney for Epstein. 

Later that year, an attorney for Wexner pushed the process along, telling an attorney for Epstein that his client “is eager to execute documents,” according to the DDOSecrets cache. 

Prosecutors wrote in a 2019 memo that Epstein returned $100 million to Wexner by January 2008. 

Though the dispute with Wexner was privately resolved by January 2008, Epstein’s attorneys appeared to have mounted a pressure campaign to discredit the prosecutor pursuing a money laundering investigation into Epstein, according to emails in the DDOSECRETS collection. Epstein had signed a non-prosecution agreement in September 2007, but his lawyers continued to negotiate with the government over its terms for several more months.

“In what can only be seen as an attempt to intimidate Mr. Epstein, Ms. Villafana [an assistant U.S. Attorney] then added money-laundering and unlicensed wire-transmittal to the list of violations under investigation even though there was no evidence against Mr. Epstein concerning these charges,” attorneys for Epstein wrote in a letter to the Office of Professional Responsibility dated Feb. 11, 2008. 

By June 2008, Epstein began his jail sentence in Palm Beach after reaching the controversial plea deal that allowed him to avoid federal charges. 

‘You and I had gang stuff for over 15 years‘

Although Epstein and Wexner appear to have severed ties following Epstein’s plea deal, documents released by the DOJ suggest that Epstein may have attempted to rekindle their relationship in subsequent years by drafting a letter reminding Wexner of shared experiences and alleged secrets. In the letter, Epstein wrote that he protected him when he was questioned by Wexner’s wife about his management of their money. 

“You and I had ‘gang stuff’ for over 15 years. A great deal of it, that she was unaware of. I had no intention of divulging any confidence of ours, no matter what accusations she made. And she made quite a few,” Epstein wrote in the draft note. Based on publicly available documents, it is unclear whether Epstein ever sent the note to Wexner. 

Wexner publicly addressed his relationship with Epstein in August 2019 amid mounting public pressure, saying in a letter to his charitable foundation that he was “deceived” by Epstein. 

“As the allegations against Mr. Epstein in Florida were emerging, he vehemently denied them. But by early fall 2007, it was agreed that he should step back from the management of our personal finances. In that process, we discovered that he had misappropriated vast sums of money from me and my family. This was, frankly, a tremendous shock, even though it clearly pales in comparison to the unthinkable allegations against him now,” Wexner wrote. 

LOS ANGELES — LOS ANGELES (AP) — Mark Zuckerberg will testify in an unprecedented social media trial that questions whether Meta’s platforms deliberately addict and harm children.

Meta’s CEO is expected to answer tough questions on Wednesday from attorneys representing a now 20-year-old woman identified by the initials KGM, who claims her early use of social media addicted her to the technology and exacerbated depression and suicidal thoughts. Meta Platforms and Google’s YouTube are the two remaining defendants in the case, which TikTok and Snap have settled.

Zuckerberg has testified in other trials and answered questions from Congress about youth safety on Meta’s platforms, and he apologized to families at that hearing whose lives had been upended by tragedies they believed were because of social media. This trial, though, marks the first time Zuckerberg will answer similar questions in front of a jury. and, again, bereaved parents are expected to be in the limited courtroom seats available to the public.

The case, along with two others, has been selected as a bellwether trial, meaning its outcome could impact how thousands of similar lawsuits against social media companies would play out.

A Meta spokesperson said the company strongly disagrees with the allegations in the lawsuit and said they are “confident the evidence will show our longstanding commitment to supporting young people.”

One of Meta’s attorneys, Paul Schmidt, said in his opening statement that the company is not disputing that KGM experienced mental health struggles, but rather that Instagram played a substantial factor in those struggles. He pointed to medical records that showed a turbulent home life, and both he and an attorney representing YouTube argue she turned to their platforms as a coping mechanism or a means of escaping her mental health struggles.

Zuckerberg’s testimony comes a week after that of Adam Mosseri, the head of Meta’s Instagram, who said in the courtroom that he disagrees with the idea that people can be clinically addicted to social media platforms. Mosseri maintained that Instagram works hard to protect young people using the service, and said it’s “not good for the company, over the long run, to make decisions that profit for us but are poor for people’s well-being.”

Much of Mosseri’s questioning from the plaintiff’s lawyer, Mark Lanier, centered on cosmetic filters on Instagram that changed people’s appearance — a topic that Lanier is sure to revisit with Zuckerberg. He is also expected to face questions about Instagram’s algorithm, the infinite nature of Meta’ feeds and other features the plaintiffs argue are designed to get users hooked.

Meta is also facing a separate trial in New Mexico that began last week.

For the second time in a little more than a week, attorneys have announced that an immigration court has terminated deportation proceedings against a pro-Palestinian student after Secretary of State Marco Rubio claimed they posed a threat to foreign policy.

According to a letter filed in court, attorneys for Mohsen Mahdawi, the Columbia University student who was detained at his naturalization interview in April, a judge has found that the Department of Homeland Security “did not meet its burden of proving by clear and convincing evidence” that he is removable. 

It comes after an immigration court terminated removal proceedings against Tufts University Ph.D. student Rümeysa Öztürk. Her attorneys announced the order in a letter to the federal judge overseeing the case challenging her detention on Feb. 9.  

For Mahdawi’s case, immigration judge Nina Froes appears to have based her decision on the finding that DHS failed to authenticate a memo allegedly signed by Rubio claiming Mahdawi was a threat to U.S. foreign policy.

Mahdawi’s attorneys have argued that, like other pro-Palestinian demonstrators, organizers and students, he was being targeted for his constitutionally protected speech.

Öztürk, like Mahdawi, was also labeled a foreign policy risk by Rubio in a memo.

Both cases can be appealed by the Trump administration, so their habeas petitions will likely continue to play out in federal court.

“I am grateful to the court for honoring the rule of law and holding the line against the government’s attempts to trample on due process,” Mahdawi said in a statement. “This decision is an important step towards upholding what fear tried to destroy: the right to speak for peace and justice.”

“In a climate where dissent is increasingly met with intimidation and detention, today’s ruling renews hope that due process still applies and that no agency stands above the Constitution,” he added.

In response to a request for comment about both cases, the Department of Homeland Security sent a previous statement about Mahdawi and said: “It is a privilege to be granted a visa or green card to live and study in the United States of America. When you advocate for violence, glorify and support terrorists that relish the killing of Americans, and harass Jews, that privilege should be revoked, and you should not be in this country. No activist judge, not this one or any other, is going to stop us from doing that.”

Mahdawi was detained in Vermont last spring during his citizenship interview. Arguing that he should continue to be detained, lawyers for the Trump administration pointed to a 2015 FBI investigation, in which a gun shop owner alleged that Mahdawi had claimed to have built machine guns in the West Bank to kill Jews.

However, the FBI closed that investigation and Mahdawi was never charged with any crime, a point a federal judge highlighted when he ordered Mahdawi’s release. 

In response to the government’s allegations against him, Mahdawi and his lawyers have firmly refuted allegations that he ever threatened Israelis or those of the Jewish faith. He told ABC News he has been advocating for peace and protesting against the war in Gaza.

“So for them to accuse me of this is not going to work, because I am a person who actually has condemned antisemitism,” Mahdawi said. “And I believe that the fight against antisemitism and the fight to free Palestine go hand in hand, because, as Martin Luther King said, injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

Öztürk was detained in March by masked federal agents, and the arrest was captured on camera. Attorneys representing her said she was targeted, like other high-profile arrests of students, for her Pro-Palestinian views, specifically, for co-authoring an Op-Ed in the student paper in March 2024 calling on the school’s administration to take steps to “acknowledge the Palestinian genocide.”

A federal judge ordered her release in May.

“Today, I breathe a sigh of relief knowing that despite the justice system’s flaws, my case may give hope to those who have also been wronged by the U.S. government,” Öztürk said in a statement on Feb. 9. “Though the pain that I and thousands of other women wrongfully imprisoned by ICE have faced cannot be undone, it is heartening to know that some justice can prevail after all.”

Ten backcountry skiers are missing following an avalanche in northern California on Tuesday, with a search and rescue operation underway amid “highly dangerous” conditions, authorities said.

The avalanche was reported midday Tuesday in the Castle Peak area in the Sierra Nevada, according to the Nevada County Sheriff’s Office.

A group of 16 skiers — including four ski guides and 12 clients — encountered the avalanche, according to the sheriff’s office. Six people survived and are awaiting rescue at the avalanche site, while 10 remain unaccounted for, the sheriff’s office said.

Rescuers are facing very difficult conditions, including avalanche danger themselves, according to Brandon Schwartz, director of the Sierra Avalanche Center, which forecasts avalanche conditions in the area around Lake Tahoe. The area saw 2 to 3 feet of new snow in the last 36 hours and more was still falling at 2 to 4 inches per hour, Schwartz told ABC News.

The Sierra Avalanche Center said there was “high” avalanche danger in the backcountry on Tuesday.

“Rapidly accumulating snowfall, weak layers in the existing snowpack, and gale-force winds that blow and drift snow have created dangerous avalanche conditions in the mountains,” the center said. “Natural avalanches are likely, and human-triggered avalanches large enough to bury or injure people are very likely.”

The Sierra Avalanche Center has issued an avalanche warning for the Central Sierra Nevada Mountains between Yuba Pass on the north and Ebbetts Pass on the south, including the greater Lake Tahoe area, through Wednesday morning.

“Large avalanches are expected to occur Tuesday, Tuesday night, and into at least early Wednesday morning across backcountry terrain,” the center said, advising against travel in, near or below backcountry avalanche terrain. “HIGH avalanche danger might continue through the day on Wednesday.”

Whiteout conditions have been reported in the region where the avalanche occurred.

The California Highway Patrol’s Truckee office warned that high winds are “creating full whiteout conditions” across the Donner Summit. 

Interstate 80 over Donner Summit was closed in both directions on Tuesday due to whiteout conditions and poor visibility.

At least four people are dead following a pile-up crash involving dozens of vehicles in Colorado that occurred as high winds blew dirt, making for low to zero visibility, authorities said.

The incident occurred around 10 a.m. local time Tuesday on I-25 near Pueblo, which is about 40 miles south of Colorado Springs, authorities said. 

Over 30 vehicles, including six semis, were involved in the crash, according to Colorado State Patrol. Pickups pulling horse trailers, SUVs and passenger vehicles were also involved, according to Maj. Brian Lyons with Colorado State Patrol.

The pile-up occurred during “adverse weather conditions,” Lyons said, with heavy winds blowing dirt and causing “brownout” conditions.

“Visibility was next to nothing,” Lyons said during a press briefing Tuesday.

There are four confirmed fatalities in separate vehicles, Lyons said. Colorado State Patrol was working with the Pueblo County Coroner’s Office to identify the victims, he said.

Another 29 people were transported to area hospitals, Colorado State Patrol said. Their injuries ranged from minor to serious, though not all conditions were known in the wake of the crash, according to Lyons.

Authorities were working to account for everyone in the vehicles involved in the crash, as well as livestock — possibly goats or sheep — that were being transported in a horse trailer, Lyons said.

I-25 is closed in both directions near the scene of the crash, with the northbound side expected to remain closed for several hours as crews work to clear vehicles, Lyons said.

Another crash occurred on I-25 involving a semi that was also caused by “significant dirt that was blowing across the highway,” Lyons said.

“Due to low visibility, drivers are urged to delay traveling until conditions improve,” Colorado State Patrol said. “If travel is necessary, avoid I-25 in this area, use caution, and reduce speed.”

High wind warnings are in effect for the region on Tuesday. The National Weather Service in Pueblo warned that “significant blowing dust” is possible on the plains, where gusts could be up to 65 mph. Mountain areas could see gusts of at least 85 mph, it said.