At 10:30 pm on March 1 TNSAR was called out for an overdue snowboarder at Squaw Valley. The biggest snow storm of the year was in progress, with 20\ new inches on the ground and 10 more due overnight. Winds at the top of the mountain were being clocked at 140 MPH.

The boarder's pass had registered him for the last time going up Squaw Creek Chair at about 1:30. Pings from cell towers at the top of the Tram showed him 2.3 miles east of the tram, which put him in the area of Squaw Creek Chair and had shown no movement since about 2 pm.

Two snowmobilers and 4 skiers responded to the Resort at Squaw Valley to meet with PCSO deputies. The skiers were able to arrange a lift in groomers to the top of Squaw Creek Chair while the snowmobiles followed. The grooming machines themselves were having trouble getting up the road there was so much new snow.

The snowmobiles headed out on roads where they could and the skiers started down to search areas of low angle that were within safe avalanche parameters, mostly looking it tree wells and terrain traps.

Unfortunately due to low visibility and extreme snow conditions nothing was found and all searchers returned to the CP at about 3:30 am. About a foot of new snow had fallen since they arrived on scene.

At daylight seven skiers from TNSAR responded to continue the search along with Squaw employees and Nevada Co. SAR personnel. They went up Red Dog Lift and skied down to a spot that been determined to be the most likely last location based on computerized ticket scans and cellphone data. Patrol had marked out the probable search area and searchers fanned out to start probing tree wells and terrain traps.

After about 15 minutes the victim was located, deceased, by ski patrol using a RECCO device.