© JASON BEAN/RGJ
The 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.
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