Tahoe Search and Rescue

02/24/2026

Injured Skier Out of Bounds at Heavenly
2/19/2026
Around 12:30pm, received a call for assistance with an injured skier below the gondola at Heavenly Resort. The skier was located about 650 vertical feet and about 1 mile from the gondola base. The Tahoe team responded by first conducting a careful evaluation of the hazards involved with responding to a mission in unmanaged avalanche terrain during high avalanche danger and an ongoing major winter storm. Two skiers rode the gondola for a single round trip to visually locate the subjects while the rest of the team transported rescue equipment to the staging area in Van Sickle State Park. During this reconnaissance, a plan was made to access the subjects from below, hiking up the gondola line and using a rescue toboggan to evacuate the injured subject. Meanwhile, the injured subject determined he could walk carefully down the slope. The SAR skiers met the subjects part of the way down at 3:20pm and assisted them to Van Sickle State Park, where deputies had opened the winter gate to provide vehicle access to the road. The mission concluded at 3:45pm.

While this terrain is visible from the lift, it is out of bounds of the ski resort, where ski patrol does not monitor, control for avalanche danger, or respond to emergencies. El Dorado County, CA and Douglas County, NV SAR teams are called to help those in need outside the boundaries of Heavenly. You can expect SAR response to take longer than ski patrol response within the resort.

02/24/2026

Leg Injury on Angora Ridge 2/2/2026
EDSAR was called out to assist an injured backcountry skier around 11:30am. The individual had injured his leg while skiing low on Angra Ridge and was unable to return to his vehicle, so he called 911. activated Tahoe SAR and requested medical assistance from . SAR team members and medics on snowshoes were able to quickly reach the patient, splint his leg, and package him for transport in a rescue sked across Washoe Meadows. EDSAR’s tracked UTV met the evacuation party and provided transport shortly after. The mission concluded around 2pm.

02/24/2026

Neck Injury on Waterhouse Peak 2/1/2026
EDSAR was called out to assist an injured backcountry skier around 12pm. The individual had fallen while ascending and aggravated a previous injury to his neck. The party pressed the SOS button on their Garmin InReach device, which alerted , who activated the Tahoe SAR ski, snowshoe, and OHV teams as well as . The ski team reached the subject with a rescue toboggan and full body split and was joined by Lake Valley Fire medics shortly after. The patient was deemed stable for transport and the ski team evacuated him using the rescue toboggan. EDSAR’s tracked UTV met the team at the bottom of the slope to complete the evacuation across flatter terrain. The mission concluded at 3:30pm.

11/20/2025

Congratulations to Zoom on his recent find! Last week he and his handler, Jerry, assisted with an out of county search. They covered over 6 miles to find a small piece of evidence that helped bring closure to a grieving family.
Zoom is one of EDSAR’s search dogs. With Jerry’s skilled handling, Zoom uses his incredible sense of smell to locate people, alive and deceased, from miles away. Zoom and Jerry respond to searches across the state through the CA Rescue Dog Association (CARDA). We are grateful to have them on our team!

11/18/2025

Stranded on a Ledge 11/11/2025
Around 3pm the Tahoe team was called out to assist an 18 year old solo climber stranded on a ledge at the top of Jakes peak on the west shore. also requested assistance from , who responded with their rescue helicopter H20. A ground team began hiking up the mountain with rope rescue gear as H20 arrived overhead and assessed the situation. H20 picked up a SAR Helicopter Rescue Technician (HRT) from a Landing Zone (LZ) at Taylor Creek Sno-Park to attempt to hoist the subject from the ledge. The H20 team was able to lower the HRT rescuer to the subject and use a rescue strop to lift both rescuer and subject off the rock and lower them to flat ground. A rescue strop is a simple strap device that is used for very short hoists. The subject was uninjured and able to hike out from the top of the mountain to his car. H20 dropped our HRT rescuer back at the LZ and headed back to Auburn before dark.

10/15/2025

Injured Hiker on Mt Tallac 10/8/2026
Around 6pm EDSAR was called to assist a hiker who had fallen and injured their head around 8600ft elevation near the intersection of the Main Tallac and Mid-Tallac Trails. Ground teams were dispatched from both trailheads with equipment to carry the subject out if needed. Helicopter resources were also requested and Sacramento Metropolitan Fire District ultimately responded to execute the extraction. Ground teams reached the subject around the same time that the helicopter inserted a rescuer from the air. The helicopter was also able to land near the subject’s location and both the subject and their hiking partner were extracted around 9pm. The ground teams returned down the mountain on foot.

10/15/2025

Overdue Hiker at Glen Alpine 10/5/2025
An individual was reported overdue by his wife in the evening, after having gone for a hike with his three dogs in Desolation Wilderness from the Lily Lake Trailhead. EDSO was able to ping his cell phone to a location near the Pacific Crest Trail between Gilmore Lake and Susie Lake. The cell phone didn’t appear to be moving. EDSAR volunteers deployed around 1am, driving up the Forest Service road to Glen Alpine to then hike to the cell phone location for a hasty search. Upon arriving at the end of the road, the SAR volunteers encountered the subject’s 3 large dogs and, 5 minutes later, the subject slowly making his way down the trail. The team members assisted the very tired subject and his dogs down to his car at Lily Lake, concluding the mission around 3am.

10/13/2025

10/13/2025

Hikers Lost Off-Trail Near Twin Lakes 9/28/2025
Two subjects became lost as they were hiking from Twin Lakes to the parking area at Wrights Lake Twin Lakes trailhead. EDSAR volunteers responded to the trailhead parking area and two ground teams used different routes to respond to the last known location. Once the ground teams reached the subjects’ last known location they reported they could not locate the subjects. At around the same time the two subjects walked out to the EDSAR parking-lot staging area. The subjects indicated they had met up with other hikers who helped them out on the trail.

09/16/2025

Stranded on Flagpole Peak 9/13/2025
On Saturday afternoon, a call came in for two stranded hikers on Flagpole Peak. They had climbed approximately 1500 vertical feet up from the east (Meyers) and became stuck on steep rock slabs, unable to progress further or descend the way they came. The hikers did not appear familiar with the route they were on. EDSAR’s technical rope rescue team was deployed and EDSO’s rescue helicopter, ECHO-1, was also called to assist. ECHO-1 was able to hoist both subjects to safety.
This mission is a reminder to always consider your ability to go back the way you came when deciding to continue in challenging terrain. These subjects made it within a few hundred feet of the top of the ridge, which looks like a small distance relative to the entire mountain but is still significant in vertical terrain.

09/14/2025

Lost Hikers Near Cascade Falls 8/25/2025
Around 7pm, EDSAR volunteers were notified of two hikers lost near Cascade Falls. Their coordinates were known from EDSO dispatch, indicating they had lost the main trail and ended up above the cliffs above the trail and falls. A team of four was assembled at the SAR Building, where the incident support team (IST) also gathered and established the mission incident command point (ICP). The team of four hiked low angle terrain to reach the subjects and led them back to the trailhead to meet up with their concerned friends. The mission took one hour car-to-car. The subjects were unfamiliar with the area and had difficulty navigating the rocky trail. They were cold and a bit scraped up from bushwhacking, but otherwise healthy and grateful for the assistance.