A 21-year-old San Jose State University student was found dead Thursday morning after he went missing while skiing at Northstar California Resort on Lake Tahoe’s north shore.
The death also came during a brutal storm that dumped more than 8 feet of snow on Lake Tahoe the surrounding region, the same storm that left measurable snowfall in the Santa Cruz Mountains.
The storm was blamed for triggering an avalanche more than a dozen miles away near Donner Pass that buried 15 backcountry skiers, killing nine of them.
Colin Kang, San Jose State University student, died at Lake Tahoe ski resort. Photo from social media posts.
San Jose State student Colin Kang was last seen around noon Tuesday near the Martis Camp Express lift at the Truckee-area resort, according to a missing poster circulated on trees and online by the SJSU ski club and the Placer County Sheriff’s Office.
His car remained in the Northstar parking lot, and his phone had died before he was reported missing. Deputies received a report of a possible missing person around 11pm Wednesday and located Kang’s vehicle in the resort lot.
Search efforts coordinated by the Placer County Office of Emergency Management included 15 skiers from the Tahoe Nordic Search and Rescue Team, a Sno-Cat and two snowmobilers, with assistance from Northstar’s ski patrol, according to authorities.
Searchers located Kang’s body, the Sheriff’s Office confirmed. The cause of death remained under investigation. Northstar officials confirmed Kang was an employee of the resort who was off duty at the time.
“We are heartbroken by this loss,” Tara Schoedinger, Northstar’s general manager, said in a statement to the media. “Our deepest sympathies are with his family and loved ones, and with the team members who had the privilege of working alongside him.”
Kang had been a ski instructor at Northstar and nearby Palisades Tahoe, according to his LinkedIn page. He attended San Jose State University after graduating from Mission San Jose High School in Fremont.
Kang’s death was the third at the resort, which is situated between Truckee and Lake Tahoe and occurred during an intense stretch of Sierra storms that had buried Tahoe-area resorts under several feet of new snow.
The UC Berkeley Central Sierra Snow Lab near Donner Pass reported more than 92 inches of snow had fallen in just four days. The heavy snowfall created conditions that led to a deadly avalanche Tuesday in the backcountry near Castle Peak, west of Donner Pass, where a group of skiers and guides were swept up in rugged terrain outside resort boundaries.
Nevada County authorities said at least eight people were confirmed dead, with additional victims still unrecovered as hazardous conditions forced crews to suspend recovery efforts Thursday.
A ninth person remained missing and was presumed dead after authorities had rescued six people hours after Tuesday’s slide.
An avalanche warning remained in effect for the greater Lake Tahoe area through early today, with forecasters warning that dangerous conditions could persist for days.
On Sunday morning, a 53-year-old man died after colliding with another skier, according to authorities. The man, identified as Stuart McLaughlin of Hillsborough, was pronounced dead by the Northstar Fire Department on the Polaris trail, a black diamond run accessed via the resort’s Backside Express lift. The other skier was taken to Tahoe Forest Hospital in Truckee for treatment. On Feb. 6, Nicholas Kenworthy, 26, of Los Angeles, died following a skiing accident on the Martis Trail, not far from where Kang was found.
The Martis Camp Lodge, a members-only facility, sits at the base of the lift serving that terrain. Kenworthy’s death remained under investigation, according to authorities.
