Avalanche — Mono, California

2025-12-26 · Mono, California

Event narrative

Two ski patrollers working avalanche mitigation on Lincoln Mountain at the Mammoth Mountain ski resort were injured and transported to hospitals due to an avalanche. One of the ski patrollers died on Sunday Dec. 28 after being seriously injured in the avalanche from Friday Dec. 26.

A second avalanche occurred in the county on 12/27, reported around 1130 am, above Latopie Lake, 3 S of Sonora Pass. This was triggered by a snow-mobile with two people caught in the large avalanche, one was buried and injured, the other walked away. He was rescued by the Mono Co SAR team, which is how we received the report.

Wider weather episode

Liquid totals reached 3-6 across the Eastern Sierra, Tahoe Basin , and Northeast California from the series of storms. Snowfall in the Sierra from this multi-day event was generally 3-6 feet in areas above 7000 feet, with 1-2 feet down to lake level in the Tahoe Basin and along US-395 above 6000 feet in Mono County. Northeast CA received between 1-6' of snowfall, with 8-18' west of US-395 near and above 5000 feet in Lassen and Plumas counties.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1300575. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.