Unprepared Skier Rescued Safely After he went Out of Bounds at Diamond Peak, NV

A skier who went out of bounds and got lost in deep powder Thursday evening at Diamond Peak Ski Resort was rescued and brought to safety hours later by ski patrol and the Washoe County Sheriff’s Hasty Team, reported the Tahoe Daily Tribune.

The skier went out of bounds from Golden Eagle Bowl at approximately 3:45 pm March 22 and was reported missing by a skiing partner about 45 minutes later, according to Washoe County Sheriff Sgt. John Hamilton.

The skier, a male student at Sierra Nevada College, “was unprepared” to be in the backcountry and was without poles, water and food, nor did he have a locator beacon, shovel or probe, and his cell phone was dead, Hamilton said.

The skier wasn’t too far out of bounds, but was on the other side of a ridgeline and lost track of resort boundaries.

Diamond Peak ski patrol spotted the skier’s tracks leaving Eagle Bowl at about 5:20 pm and 20 minutes later made voice contact with the skier. The hasty team helped break the trail and by 8:15 pm the skier had reached safety.

“He was tired, scared and not prepared,” Hamilton said. “Again, it’s the typical demographic, a person not thinking enough ahead and just chasing the powder.”

The North Lake Tahoe Fire Department also responded.

It was the second incident in two days for the hasty team, which rescued a pair of lost snowshoers on March 20, southwest of Incline Lake.