The search was unsuccessful today (Jan. 16) for 23-year-old Carson May, a skiing instructor from Sugar Bowl ski resort near Lake Tahoe. May remains missing as the search had to be called off following a diligent effort at the resort near Lake Tahoe, Calif.
May, who is from Davis, Calif., was last seen Thursday wearing a blue Columbia jacket, bright green ski pants and a blue helmet. The rescue crews have been focused on searching the backside of Sugar Bowl, where there have seen slides during the day.
The search for the missing ski instructor intensified Saturday morning after authorities received pings off “the last known location of his cellphone in a (high-risk) avalanche area,” according to Lt. Troy Sander of the Placer County Sheriff’s Office.
Sander said that “(authorities) are no longer getting any pings from the phone. Sander said he thought the phone battery died.
Four feet of powder have fallen at Sugar Bowl since May was reported missing Thursday afternoon, and the area currently is seeing mixed precipitation. The difficult conditions had searchers proceeding cautiously because there is an extremely high risk (of avalanches) in that area.
Sander said that May typically would ski slightly out of bounds through a tree line, and then come back inbounds and make his way down to the lodge.
There were a reported 50 people involved in the search today for May. Joining in the hunt for May were risky search-and-rescue teams from the Placer County and Contra Costa county sheriff’s offices, the U.S. Forest Service, Sugar Bowl ski patrol, Tahoe Nordic Search and Rescue and other volunteers.
May reportedly graduated in 2011 from the Da Vinci Charter Academy in Davis. May and his brother Wyndham joined the Davis High School ski team, which took a division title in 2009. Carson moved from Davis to Truckee, and reportedly had very good knowledge of the area he was skiing.
“There were white out conditions on the top summit so he could have gotten disoriented and went down the wrong run or somewhere on the back side,” said David Hunt with the Placer County Sheriff’s Office said today.
May is a Sugar Bowl Mountain Sports Learning Center ski instructor who was skiing Thursday afternoon while off duty. He was expected to receive a ride home with a friend that evening, but didn’t show. A friend didn’t believe anything was wrong with May and went home.
Friends reported May as missing at 10 a.m. Friday when they discovered he never came home Thursday evening. His belongings were still in his Sugar Bowl locker Friday morning.
A Sugar Bowl spokesperson said the ski resort has been in communication with May’s family.
Jeffrey Weidel can be reached at skiweidel@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter @jeffweidel and visit his website at www.tahoeskiworld.com.
