Details began to emerge Thursday about the nine people killed in a deadly avalanche at Castle Peak near Lake Tahoe two days.

Many of those killed belonged to a tight-knit group of Stanford University graduates, The New York Times reported. Reports are emerged that the backcountry party included mothers who were connected to youth ski clubs run at Sugar Bowl Resort, a few miles from the slide.

Neighbors identified one to The Sacramento Bee as a mother from Greenbrae with two young children.

The group also included a mother of two from Marin County and two friends from San Francisco and Boise, Idaho, according to published reports.

An avalanche swept away 15 people on a backcountry skiing trip amid a heavy snowstorm on Tuesday morning. The group included 15 backcountry skiers — four guides and 11 clients — according to the Nevada County Sheriff’s Office.

Of the nine people who perished, seven were women and two were men. Six people survived the avalanche — two women and four men.

Six were rescued Tuesday night, and nine were confirmed dead Wednesday. One more person remained unaccounted for and was presumed dead.

Details emerge on victims

Neighbor Carleen Cullen of Greenbrae, speaking to a reporter outside the home of one victim,her as Kate Vitt.

“I just saw them as kind of a typical family, you know, fun with kids,” Cullen said. She said she did not know the family well and only just found out about Vitt’s death. “She just seemed like a super friendly, great mom.”

Vitt, 43, was a vice president if product operations and customer success at SiriusXM in San Francisco, according to her LinkedIn profile.

Cullen told a reporter Vitt’s death was “just devastating.”

Neighbro Sheryl Longman told a reporter at her home that Vitt’s children were young boys, showing a Christmas card from the family.

“They were just an ideal family, both working hard, raising two kids.,” Longman said. She described them as “good neighbors.”

“This (is) an attractive young tough couple who seemed to be doing everything right and you still get hit by tragedy,” Longman said.

Two sisters, ages 45 and 54, from San Francisco and Boise, Idaho, also are among the dead, The New York Times reported.

In addition, a Mill Valley woman was among those killed, the mayor of the Marin County city said.

Mayor Max Perrey told the publication that a mother from the community was among the nine people found dead following the avalanche.

“Our heart in Mill Valley goes out to the families that have been impacted,” Perrey told the newspaper. “It’s a huge tragedy and a huge loss.”

An email from the Kentfield School District in Marin County confirmed that a mother of two children in the district died in the avalanche, SF Gate reported.

The woman’s two boys are with their father as they “navigate this profound loss,” the email said.

‘The pain must be unbearable’

A neighbor of the woman in Mill Valley, 30 minutes north of San Francisco, said the mother of two had a “zest for life,” NBC Bay Area reported.

“It’s devastating, I mean, it’s ski week, she’s got two adorable little kids and we watch them just for the past couple of years walking back and forth from school,” the neighbor said. “She has so much verve and zest for life and she was just a lovely neighbor. It’s just so scary, like you never think this is going to happen.”

Nevada County officials confirmed that several of the avalanche victims were mothers from Mill Valley, San Francisco TV station KRON reported.

Mill Valley City Councilmember Urban Carmel, who has lived in the town since 1999, said on Thursday that the community was focused on supporting and allowing the families time to grieve.

“Give these poor people an opportunity to grieve and process this loss,” Carmel said. “The pain must be unbearable.”

He said “as a city official” he did not know any of the victims. His understanding was that local agencies involved in the recovery would not release any names for at least a few days.

Carmel said Mill Valley is a tight-knit community of about 14,000 people and a town where “community is primary.”

“That’s why people come to Mill Valley and stay in Mill Valley for many, many decades,” Carmel said. He noted that this week is “ski week” for the town, meaning students have the week off from school and families often go on ski vacations.

“What’s tragic about this is that two weeks ago not many would have gone because they hadn’t gotten snow,” Carmel said. “The conditions were poor. And then of course snow comes, everyone is excited and they all go up and maybe it’s the first time they’ve been up this year.”

For now, Carmel said, the focus was on healing.

“Our focus is entirely on the families who are walking through their darkest days,” he added. “If you’re home tonight and your family is safe, hold them a little closer. We have much to be grateful for.”

Recovery efforts paused amid storm

Rescue and recovery crews were unable to remove the victims from the mountain Thursday because of hazardous weather and avalanche conditions, the Nevada County Sheriff’s Office said.

Recovery efforts were expected to continue into the weekend, and authorities said they would not release the victims’ names, ages, affiliations or hometowns until the mission was completed.

“Due to hazardous weather conditions, avalanche victims cannot be safely extracted off the mountain today,” the Sheriff’s Office said in a statement, adding that crews had worked “tirelessly around the clock” in dangerous conditions.

In a statement on X, California First Partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom said she and Gov. Gavin Newsom were “holding the Tahoe avalanche victims, the survivors, and their loved ones close in our hearts.”

The governor’s family resides in Kentfield, a Marin County enclave just north Mill Valley.

“Thank you to the first responders and local and state officials who searched through the night in dangerous conditions, doing everything they could to bring those skiers home,” Siebel Newsom said. “Please follow the guidance of local emergency officials and first responders. Stay safe, California.”

Some victims linked to ski academy

Several of those killed were connected to the Sugar Bowl Academy, though it was unclear if any of them were from Mill Valley, The Sacramento Bee reported.

Sugar Bowl Academy, an independent school based a few miles south of Castle Peak, also did not name anyone connected to the school who was caught in the avalanche.

“Multiple members of the Sugar Bowl Academy community and others with strong connections to Sugar Bowl, Donner Summit, and the backcountry community died,” it said in a statement.

“This tragedy has affected each and every one of us,” the academy’s Executive Director Stephen McMahon said in a statement. “The depth of support for the families whose lives have been changed forever reminds us of how special this community is”

The academy is a boarding school that provides college preparatory courses and a competitive ski training center. It was founded in the early 1990s under a different name. It provides ski teams for students ages 5 to 23 and schooling for children in grades 6 through 12.

One of the people who died was the spouse of a member of a Nordic search and rescue team for the Placer County Sheriff’s Office, according to Sheriff Wayne Woo. It was unclear whether the person was also connected to the school.

The Castle Peak avalanche is the deadliest on record in California.

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(The Bee’s Stephen Hobbs and Camila Pedrosa contributed to this story.)

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