Six moms identified as portraits of California avalanche victims emerge
Six moms have been identified as victims in the deadliest avalanche in California history, which killed nine people Tuesday near Tahoe.
Carrie Atkin, Liz Clabaugh, Danielle Keatley, Kate Morse, Caroline Sekar and Kate Vitt were named by a spokesperson retained by their families. The spokesperson, Jess Weaver, said the women were trained and experienced backcountry skiers who had planned the trip along with two other close friends; a total of 15 people, including four guides, were caught up in the avalanche.
The women “were passionate, skilled skiers who cherished time together in the mountains,” Weaver said. “They lived in the Bay Area, Idaho, and the Truckee–Tahoe region.”
Vitt was a Greenbrae mother of two. The New York Times had reported Thursday that McAlister Clabaugh of Boise, Idaho, identified two victims on the trip as his sisters, Sekar, 45, of San Francisco, and Clabaugh, 52, of Boise. McAlister, who could not be reached by The Sacramento Bee, told the New York Times, “They were incredible sisters, mothers, wives and friends. And the idea that they are both gone is — I don’t even know how to put it into words.”
Around 11:30 a.m. Tuesday, an avalanche swept away a group of 15 backcountry skiers — 11 clients and four guides. Six people survived. Eight bodies have yet to be recovered — their remains are still on the mountain due to dangerous conditions — and a ninth person is presumed dead. Authorities have not yet released the names of those who were caught in the slide.
Many of those killed Tuesday belonged to a tight-knit group of Stanford University graduates, The New York Times reported. A competitive ski academy at Sugar Bowl Resort confirmed that many people in the backcountry party were connected with the program. The Sugar Bowl Academy runs a school in tandem with intensive ski training.
Of the nine people who perished, seven were women and two were men.
Details emerge on victims
Vitt, 43, was a vice president of product operations and customer success at SiriusXM in San Francisco, according to her LinkedIn profile.
She lived in Greenbrae with her husband, Geoffrey, and their two children. A Christmas card from last year provided by a neighbor, Sheryl Longman, showed the family smiling by a lake. The card says they were “lucky to have some incredible adventures near and far.” Vitt stands between her two young sons, holding their Portuguese water dog, Smokey.
“They were just an ideal family,” Longman said. “Wonderful people. And I don’t know what Geoff is gonna do.”
Vitt’s family was athletic. Her father, Peter Coakley, posted on Instagram about going on a birthday bike ride with her and her brother, Chris Coakley. A message to Vitt’s husband was not immediately returned Thursday.
Two sisters, ages 45 and 52, from San Francisco and Boise, Idaho, also were among the dead, The New York Times reported.
In addition to Vitt, Sekar and Clabaugh, the mayor of Mill Valley said a mother who lived in his city was also among the dead.
“Our heart in Mill Valley goes out to the families that have been impacted,” Mayor Max Perrey told the newspaper. “It’s a huge tragedy and a huge loss.”
An email from the Kentfield School District in Marin County confirmed that a mother of two children in the district died in the avalanche, SF Gate reported.
The woman’s two boys are with their father as they “navigate this profound loss,” the email said.
‘The pain must be unbearable’
A neighbor of the woman in Mill Valley, 30 minutes north of San Francisco, said the mother of two had a “zest for life,” NBC Bay Area reported.
“She’s got two adorable little kids and we watch them just for the past couple of years walking back and forth from school,” the neighbor said. “She has so much verve and zest for life and she was just a lovely neighbor. It’s just so scary, like you never think this is going to happen.”
Mill Valley City Councilmember Urban Carmel, who has lived in the town since 1999, said Thursday that the community was focused on supporting the families and giving them time to grieve.
“Give these poor people an opportunity to grieve and process this loss,” Carmel said. “The pain must be unbearable.”
He said he did not personally know any of the victims. His understanding was that local agencies involved in the recovery would not release any names for at least a few days.
Carmel said Mill Valley is a tight-knit community of about 14,000 people and a town where “community is primary.”
“That’s why people come to Mill Valley and stay in Mill Valley for many, many decades,” Carmel said. He noted that this week is “ski week” for the town, meaning students have the week off from school and families often go on ski vacations.
“What’s tragic about this is that two weeks ago not many would have gone because they hadn’t gotten snow,” Carmel said. “The conditions were poor. And then of course snow comes, everyone is excited and they all go up and maybe it’s the first time they’ve been up this year.”
For now, Carmel said, the focus was on healing.
“Our focus is entirely on the families who are walking through their darkest days,” he added. “If you’re home tonight and your family is safe, hold them a little closer. We have much to be grateful for.”
Recovery efforts paused amid storm
Rescue and recovery crews were unable to remove the victims from the mountain Thursday because of hazardous weather and avalanche conditions, the Nevada County Sheriff’s Office said.
Recovery efforts were expected to continue into the weekend, and authorities said they would not release the victims’ names, ages, affiliations or hometowns until the mission was completed.
“Due to hazardous weather conditions, avalanche victims cannot be safely extracted off the mountain today,” the Sheriff’s Office said in a statement, adding that crews had worked “tirelessly around the clock” in dangerous conditions.
In a statement on X, California First Partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom said she and Gov. Gavin Newsom were “holding the Tahoe avalanche victims, the survivors, and their loved ones close in our hearts.”
The governor’s family resides in Kentfield, a Marin County enclave just north of Mill Valley.
“Thank you to the first responders and local and state officials who searched through the night in dangerous conditions, doing everything they could to bring those skiers home,” Siebel Newsom said. “Please follow the guidance of local emergency officials and first responders. Stay safe, California.”
Some victims linked to ski academy
Several of those killed were connected to the Sugar Bowl Academy, though it was unclear if any of them were from Mill Valley, The Sacramento Bee reported.
Sugar Bowl Academy, an independent school based a few miles south of Castle Peak, also did not name anyone connected to the school who was caught in the avalanche.
“Multiple members of the Sugar Bowl Academy community and others with strong connections to Sugar Bowl, Donner Summit, and the backcountry community died,” it said in a statement.
“This tragedy has affected each and every one of us,” the academy’s Executive Director Stephen McMahon said in a statement. “The depth of support for the families whose lives have been changed forever reminds us of how special this community is”
The academy is a boarding school that provides college preparatory courses and a competitive ski training center. It was founded in the early 1990s under a different name. It provides ski teams for students ages 5 to 23 and schooling for children in grades 6 through 12.
One of the people who died was the spouse of a member of a Nordic search and rescue team for the Placer County Sheriff’s Office, according to Sheriff Wayne Woo. It was unclear whether the person was also connected to the school.
The Bee’s Stephen Hobbs and Camila Pedrosa contributed to this story.
This story was originally published February 19, 2026 at 9:09 AM with the headline "Six moms identified as portraits of California avalanche victims emerge."
