Sarah Wright

This slide was around the size of a football field, so it was absolutely massive.

On Tuesday at around 11.30 a.m., first responders in Tahoe received notification, a 911 call essentially, from skiers who had been in an avalanche up near Donner Summit.

They were out on a three-day trip to one of the backcountry huts back there and were returning on their final day when they got caught in the big slide.

When you have sort of this long dry spell that creates a melted out slippery surface and then you dump a bunch of snow on top of that, that can create really risky conditions.

So that's not even to mention the wind being a factor and the buildup of this snow and these whiteout conditions that can make the hillsides even steeper and more dangerous.

They require that anybody going on this trip is at least an advanced resort skier and an intermediate backcountry skier, which they qualify as having spent 20 or more days out in the backcountry.

So that's not an insignificant amount of time.

They don't, however, require their participants to have avalanche certification.

the first thing you should do is try to build up as much speed as you possibly can and then angle away from the sliding snow.

If you get caught, the first attempt would be to try to grab onto something stable like a tree.

If you can't do that, try to swim your way out of the snow.

And you're going to have to do this while you and the snow are moving because as soon as it stops and you stop, it becomes concrete.

More than 40 former national parks leaders signed a letter to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum demanding the Trump administration close national parks if the government does shut down.

Bill Wade, executive director of the Association of National Park Rangers, says without workers, parks are at risk of being vandalized, like in 2019 when visitors to Joshua Tree National Park illegally chopped down trees and littered the park.

Wade says it could also put visitors at risk with slower rescues if someone is hurt or lost.

For NPR News, I'm Sarah Wright in San Francisco.