Palisades Tahoe Avalanche Victim Identified As 66-Year-Old Man

The victim of yesterday’s inbound avalanche at Palisades Tahoe Ski Resort has been identified by the Placer County Sheriff’s Office as 66-year-old year old Kenneth Kidd who is a resident of both Point Reyes and the Truckee Tahoe area. Our condolences go out to Mr. Kidd’s family and friends.

Palisades Tahoe has issued this statement about the circumstance behind Mr. Kidd’s death:

“At approximately 9:30 a.m. today, an avalanche occurred on the Palisades side of the Palisades Tahoe resort, specifically in the GS gully area, to the skier’s right of the KT-22 chairlift. Palisades Tahoe Ski Patrol responded immediately to the scene and completed a thorough search of the area with the help of over 100 resort personnel, as well as members of the public, using avalanche transceivers, probes, RECCO Rescue System technology, and avalanche rescue dog teams.

A male skier sustained fatal injuries and was pronounced deceased by Tahoe Forest Hospital. Three other skiers sustained non-life threatening injuries, and were released after initial treatment.

The entire Palisades Tahoe team, including all of the first responders, extend their deepest sympathies to the family and friends of those involved in the incident.

The cause of the avalanche is under investigation. For more information please contact Placer County Sheriff’s Office.”

Palisades Tahoe closed the mountain yesterday after the avalanche but will reopen today. KT-22 will not be open today:

“Following yesterday’s incident, we have lost the access road to KT-22 due to avalanche debris. Access roads are required to get snowcats and snowmobiles up the mountain to spin the lift, and it requires a lot of work to put these roads in. With the heavy snowfall we saw overnight, we were not able to reestablish the road. For this reason, KT-22 is not going to open today.

It will be a rigorous snow safety morning for both Palisades and Alpine. Since both mountains closed just shy of 11am yesterday, it will take longer to assess all terrain and get everything open. Delays will be more significant than usual. We appreciate your patience and understanding. We will send push notifications via our app as we have updates throughout the morning.”

Again our heart goes out to Kenneth Kidd’s family and friends.