Survivor of deadly California avalanche: 'I felt every type of fear possible'
Hannah Sugerman was with her brother and her partner, enjoying a day on the slopes at Palisades Tahoe resort near Lake Tahoe, California, on Wednesday, when they found themselves caught in a deadly avalanche.
"When I got lifted and started being carried down the hill by an avalanche, initially, I thought someone was crashing into the back of me, because I just felt, like, my whole lower body just get lifted and moved," Sugerman told ABC News. "And then as I looked around, I just realized I couldn't even see still snow -- I was just in the midst of an avalanche."
"I couldn't believe it," she said. "Once I was picked up and moving down the hill, I realized that it was quite a wide avalanche. Like, not just like a little snow."
Sugerman's partner, Cal Wishart, said he heard her scream -- she was buried up to her neck. Wishart was able to free her arms and good Samaritans helped dig her out.
But they were still worried about locating Sugerman's brother, Oliver Thompson.
"I was a bit of a mess," Sugerman said. "I had moments of clarity where I knew I needed to get my breathing under control."
"There was a time there where I was, like, preparing for the worst, which was really, really, really scary," Wishart said.
About 15 minutes later, they found him.
"We were looking, sort of, at the top of the cliff. I had no idea he got sent off this cliff and he was probably another 80 meters down," Wishart said.
Thompson suffered a leg injury in the avalanche, according to Sugerman and officials.
One person, 66-year-old Kenneth Kidd, was buried in the avalanche and died, officials said.
Two people sustained minor injuries.
"I think I felt every type of fear possible in a day," Sugerman said. "I feared for my life, I feared for [Wishart's] life and my brother's life, and I feared for the life of everyone else on the hill."
But "the sense of community -- the ski patrol, local community members who came up to help ... everyone was absolutely incredible," she added. "All you could just hear across the whole hill was, like, dead silent, except you could just hear them -- the comms -- between everyone. And the efforts by ski patrol to make sure that there was not a single square inch of that snow that wasn't searched, was amazing."
Kidd's death marks the first U.S. avalanche fatality of the 2023-2024 winter season, according to the Colorado Avalanche Information Center.
While Thompson is recovering, Sugerman and Wishart are already back skiing on Thursday.
"I think anyone who's out there skiing is well aware of the risks involved on any given day," Sugerman said. "Anything can happen on the hill. And I think as long as you're educated about the mountain and you're respectful of the mountain, and you're always skiing in groups and doing everything within your own power to make sure you're safe, you shouldn't have a hesitation. "
"We can't let it stop us enjoying what we love," Wishart added.
