said on Wednesday<\/a> that multiple victims had ties to its community in Norden, Calif., several miles from where the avalanche occurred. <\/p>\nMs. Atkin, 46, a leadership coach, had lived in the Bay Area before moving to Soda Springs in the Sierra Nevada. Her husband, Pete Atkin, 45, provided a statement to The New York Times saying that their life together in the mountains \u201cwas exactly what she dreamed of.\u201d<\/p>\n
The family skied and mountain-biked, and Ms. Atkin volunteered in their daughter\u2019s fourth- grade classroom and coached their son\u2019s middle school cross-country and track teams, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe kids and I are shattered by this tragedy,\u201d he said. \u201cBut even in our grief, we are committed to living a life that would make her proud \u2014 a life filled with the adventure, kindness and dedication to others that defined her.\u201d<\/p>\n
Apart from the sisters and Ms. Atkin, the other avalanche victims were from Marin County, Calif., just north of San Francisco, according to officials there.<\/p>\n
Ms. Morse, 45, lived in Tiburon and worked in biotechnology, according to public records and LinkedIn. Ms. Keatley, 44, lived in Larkspur, worked in biotech and opened a winery with her husband.<\/p>\n
The Kentfield School District, which runs two schools in Marin County, sent an email to families on Wednesday announcing that Ms. Vitt, the mother of two elementary school students, had died in the avalanche.<\/p>\n
\u201cKate\u2019s two sons,\u201d the letter reads, \u201care safe and are with their father, Geoff, as they navigate this profound loss. The Vitt family is a cherished part of our community.\u201d<\/p>\n
The letter was provided to The New York Times by Brian Colbert, a member of the Marin County Board of Supervisors who represents an area that includes the school and the town of Greenbrae, where the Vitt family lives.<\/p>\n
The school district did not return a request for comment, but said in its letter that it would offer counseling for staff members and students when they return next week from their midwinter break, which local families informally refer to as \u201cski week.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to her LinkedIn profile, Ms. Vitt, 43, was a graduate of Boston College and worked as a vice president of product operations and customer success at SiriusXM. Before that, she worked at Pandora, the music app.<\/p>\n
Marin County residents were reeling Thursday.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrankly, we\u2019re in shock,\u201d Mr. Colbert said. \u201cEverybody knows everybody. It\u2019s gut wrenching because so many people knew these moms.\u201d<\/p>\n
Marin County is a constellation of affluent, family-oriented towns where children\u2019s sports and ski vacations in the Tahoe region are a regular part of the culture.<\/p>\n
\u201cTahoe is in some ways our Shangri-La,\u201d Mr. Colbert said. \u201cYou\u2019re there in the winter. You\u2019re there in the summer. For many people, it\u2019s the place to recharge and reconnect with folks away from the hectic pace of regular daily life.\u201d<\/p>\n
Michael Natenshon, the chief executive of the clothing company Marine Layer and a resident of Mill Valley, said he had gone to high school in Massachusetts with Ms. Keatley, recalling her as a warm, kind person. He had recently met Ms. Vitt at a school fund-raiser, and laughed that their families had played a rousing game of beer pong.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s been a crater blown into the community,\u201d Mr. Natenshon said in an interview. \u201cIt feels like a game of one degree of separation to everybody I talk to.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said the victims\u2019 families often stayed in the Serene Lakes area near Sugar Bowl as their children skied on the resort\u2019s team. That area is \u201caffectionately known as Mill Valley North,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s particularly hard because everybody knew the kids,\u201d Mr. Natenshon said. \u201cThat\u2019s the part that stings so much.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rescue workers have not yet been able to retrieve the eight people who were found dead on the mountain because of severe storm conditions, which were expected to continue at least through Thursday, according to officials with Nevada County, which includes the area where the avalanche struck. They said they would not be releasing the names or any other information about the victims until the bodies had been recovered. A ninth person remains missing but is presumed to be dead, according to officials.<\/p>\n
The U.S. Forest Service announced on Thursday that it would close the Castle Peak area, including the avalanche zone, until March 15 because of unstable snowpack conditions and the need for search and rescue crews to recover the bodies.<\/p>\n
At an unrelated news conference about funding for the Bay Area Rapid Transit system on Thursday, Gov. Gavin Newsom said that he and his wife, Jennifer Siebel Newsom, have \u201ca lot of mutual friends\u201d with some of the victims and their families.<\/p>\n
The Newsoms grew up in Marin County, and they are raising their four children in Kentfield. Mr. Newsom said he stayed at the same Frog Lake huts about a year ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur hearts go out to those who lost their lives, and a community of skiers and a community of families from the Bay Area, so many of them so attached to the Sugar Bowl region,\u201d Mr. Newsom said while on a BART train in San Mateo County.<\/p>\n
In the town of Greenbrae, Sheryl Longman, 80, said that she appreciated the four years she lived next door to Ms. Vitt, calling her \u201ca lovely person.\u201d She did not mind the Vitt boys accidentally hitting balls into her garden.<\/p>\n
Ms. Vitt, she recalled, had visited her garden just a few weeks ago to see her new crop of red amaryllis flowers.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey were particularly beautiful, and she noted how pretty they were,\u201d Ms. Longman said.<\/p>\n
She gave Ms. Vitt a bulb to plant. It came in a special wax case.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe took it home and watched it grow,\u201d Ms. Longman said. \u201cShe was very delighted to have it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Georgia Gee and Sheelagh McNeill contributed research. Laurel Rosenhall contributed reporting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The families of six friends and mothers who were killed in a Sierra Nevada avalanche this week identified…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":604587,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,257804,260123,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,260098,146545,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-604586","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-america","tag-avalanches","tag-lake-tahoe-nev","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-newyork","tag-newyorkcity","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-sierra-nevada-region-us","tag-skiing","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116105742035628950","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/604586","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=604586"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/604586\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/604587"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=604586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=604586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=604586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}