In the afternoon a group of 5 skiers left the top of the Summit lift at Sugarbowl to ski to Donner Lake.  At some point, below Donner Peak and about 300 feet above the railroad tunnels, one of the skiers took a fall and injured himself severely- head, face, neck, back and limb injuries. His friends reported the incident by cell phone.

      Sugarbowl patrol responded with a sled and backboard and TNSAR was dispatched.  There was intermittent cloud cover and helicopter evacuation was not ensured.  3 TNSAR skiers and a snowmobile accessed the old train tunnels from ASI and were able to get directly below the injured skier, arriving at about the same time patrol got to the victim and a CHP helicopter H24 arrived on scene.  TNSAR skiers started climbing to the scene, which was 300’ above them, while patrol packaged the patient and H24 landed by Rainbow Bridge to reconfigure for receiving the patient.  H24 was able to make a nose in full power hover while patrol loaded the patient, who was then transported to a Roseville trauma center.

   The patrollers brought the sled down to the tracks, where the TNSAR snowmobile received it, and with some difficulty hauled it out through the tunnels.  All skiers descended to Donner Lake and a fine meal was had at the Summit Lodge.