Officials worked to lower the risks of more deadly slides Friday in the area where an avalanche struck in California’s Sierra Nevada so crews could safely recover the bodies of the people killed.

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.

Teams started to launch operations Saturday to recover the bodies of eight skiers killed by an avalanche near Castle Peak Tuesday, the deadliest slide in California history.

“Our thoughts are with the victim’s family during this incredibly difficult time,” the Unified Police Department of Greater Salt Lake said

Many of the people on the fatal trek were women — mothers, sisters and wives — with ties to Marin County, Calif.

For a group of friends who loved skiing and shaped a family life around it, the pain of this loss centers on a cherished place: near the school, Sugar Bowl and Donner Pass, a Sierra skier dreamland of high annual snowfalls, cozy lodgings and thrilling steep terrain.

Movie nights on a garage door. A porch adjusted with umbrellas to keep neighborhood children shaded. A last-minute Zoom workshop that never began. Across the Bay Area and Tahoe region, the women