The Washoe County Sheriff's Search & Rescue
© JASON BEAN/RGJThe Washoe County Sheriff's Search & Rescue team respond to a snowmobile rescue at Tahoe Meadows near Reno on April 2, 2020.
A snowmobiler died in an avalanche triggered by a collapsing cornice on Frog Lakes Cliffs near Truckee, California on Saturday, according to the Sierra Avalanche Center.

According to the avalanche forecaster's report, a group of three snowmobilers were riding in the area of Frog Lakes Cliffs off of Donner Pass when one stopped near a cornice overhanging the cliffs.

Not realizing how close they were to the edge, the person took a few steps toward the edge and caused a 40-foot section of the cornice to break, the forecaster said. The person fell with the collapsing ice and snow and triggered a larger avalanche on the slope below.

The avalanche "swept the person down the slope over cliffs and through rocks and chutes," the forecaster wrote. The person fell more than 900 vertical feet.

The person was not buried in the slide, but was found with traumatic injuries on the surface of the snow. A bystander downslope who witnessed the avalanche reached the victim and performed CPR, but the person did not survive, according to the report.

The report did not provide any details about the individual who died.

Rescue teams responded to the scene and used a helicopter to evacuate the body, the report said. A recovery effort was conducted by Nevada County SAR, Tahoe Nordic SAR, Placer County Avalanche Dog Team, NAS Fallon/US Navy, and Tahoe Donner XC.

The avalanche forecast for Saturday was moderate above and at tree-line, meaning human-triggered avalanches were possible on certain terrain. The forecast warned of wind-slab avalanches.

Nationally, avalanche fatalities are at a near-record pace. So far this season, 33 people have died in avalanches. The first week of February, 15 people died, the most in a week since 1910.

Saturday's fatality on Frog Lake Cliffs appears to be the first in California this season.