Marin avalanche victims mourned as recovery slows

The Marin County women killed in a Sierra avalanche this week remained on the mountain Friday as recovery teams waited for crews to make the area safer to work.

The effort, which began in the afternoon, involved using explosives or other means to trigger controlled slides to clear potentially unstable snow, the Nevada County Sheriff’s Office said. Difficult weather and the instability of the snowpack continued to pose significant risk to teams tasked with reaching the victims.

“These proactive measures are designed to reduce the risk of naturally occurring avalanches and enhance first responder safety within the affected area, so they may recover victims with lower risk,” the sheriff’s office said in a statement.

The area of the Tahoe National Forest near the scene at Castle Peak was closed on Friday and could remain off limits through March 15.

The catastrophic slide happened Tuesday after an enormous slab of snow broke loose, sweeping all 15 members of the backcountry ski group downhill.

Eight people died, six survived and one person is missing and presumed dead. The disaster was the deadliest avalanche in the United States in more than four decades.

Authorities have not released the names of the victims, but a statement from the families of six of the victims described them as a group of mothers who were close friends who embraced the Sierra. The statement identified them as Greenbrae resident Kate Vitt, 43, a satellite radio executive; Kate Morse, 45, of Tiburon, who worked in biotech; and Danielle Keatley, 44, a Larkspur executive with a wine business.

The others were Carrie Atkin, 46, of Norden, Nevada County; Caroline Sekar, 45, of San Francisco; and Liz Clabaugh, 52, of Boise, Idaho. Sekar and Clabaugh are sisters.

Keatley founded Keatley Wines with her husband Dave in 2016. Raised in northwest Connecticut, she grew up near the Berkshire Mountains. She developed a love for cooking after her family moved to the Provence region of France, according to the company’s website.

After returning to the United States, she attended high school and then the University of Virginia before moving to San Francisco.

Larkspur Mayor Stephanie Andre said she met Keatley several years ago. She was introduced to her through her husband, who ran for a seat on the Marin Municipal Water District board.

“They’re both just pillars of the community,” Andre said. “She was just a beautiful person inside and out.”

Recently, Keatley worked as vice president of investor relations and corporate communications at Structure Therapeutics, a biopharmaceutical company in San Francisco.

“She was an extraordinary teammate and a deeply kind person,” Ray Stevens, the chief executive officer, said in a statement Friday. “Her spirit and passion inspired me and the many Structure colleagues who spent time with her each day.”

Stevens said Keatley was a “great colleague to be stuck with on a road trip and to bounce ideas off as we work persistently to make medicines more accessible to all those in need. Her contributions to the company’s success will be etched in Structure’s legacy forever.”

Mill Valley resident Michael Natenshon, the chief executive of the clothing company Marine Layer, said he went to high school in Massachusetts with Keatley. He recalled her as a warm, kind person.

Natenshon also said he recently met Vitt at a school fundraiser, and laughed that their families had played a rousing game of beer pong.

“There’s been a crater blown into the community,” he said. “It feels like a game of one degree of separation to everybody I talk to.”

He said the victims’ families often stayed in the Serene Lakes area near Sugar Bowl as their children skied on the resort’s team.

“It’s particularly hard because everybody knew the kids,” he said. “That’s the part that stings so much.”

The New York Times and the Press Democrat contributed to this report.