Larkspur mother, winemaker among ski group killed in Tahoe avalanche
Danielle Keatley was among the close circle of ski mothers killed in Tuesday’s avalanche near Castle Peak outside Truckee, women who spent winter weekends driving their children to Sugar Bowl.
At home in Larkspur, Keatley balanced a demanding biotech career with a winery she built with her husband, Dave. Friends say she blended ambition with warmth and deep community ties.
Related: Avalanche near Castle Peak: What we know so far about the deadliest slide in California history
In the Marin County town where she lived with her family, Mayor Stephanie Andre said Keatley was a fixture who often donated the wine the couple made in Healdsburg to local events.
She was a “radiant, beautiful soul,” Andre said. “She was warm, kind and exuded a special quality that drew people to her.”
As families waited Friday for weather to clear so crews could recover the remaining victims, the scale of the tragedy continued to reverberate. Nine people were killed when the avalanche struck a group of 15 skiers Tuesday morning as they were returning from a three-day, professionally guided backcountry trip near Castle Peak during white-out storm conditions. The group included 11 clients and four guides. Six people survived and were rescued hours later. Search crews located eight of the nine victims that evening and marked their positions in the snow for recovery once weather conditions improved.
“They were passionate, skilled skiers who cherished time together in the mountains,” the families of the five women, along with one of their sisters who also died, said in a statement Thursday.
Keatley grew up near the Berkshire Mountains in Connecticut before moving with her family to Provence, where she developed a love of cooking. She later met her husband while he was working as the winemaker at Flowers on the Sonoma Coast.
“Danielle loves making and sharing delicious food with friends and thinks that it needs a good wine to go along with it,” the Keatley Wines website says.
Ray Stevens, CEO of the South San Francisco biopharmaceutical company Structure Therapeutics, where Keatley led investor relations and corporate communications, called her “a remarkable leader, trusted voice and deeply valued teammate.”
In a LinkedIn post, Stevens described her as “a deeply kind” person and “a great colleague to be stuck with on a road trip to bounce ideas off as we work persistently to make medicines more accessible to all those in need.”
The other victims from the Bay Area include Carrie Atkin, who had recently moved with her husband and children to the Tahoe area from San Francisco; Caroline Sekar of San Francisco; Kate Vitt of Greenbrae; and Kate Morse of Tiburon. Sekar’s older sister, Liz Clabaugh, who joined the trip, lived in Idaho.
In Larkspur, neighbors and friends remembered Keatley not only for her professional accomplishments, but for the way she brought people together — around a dinner table, a bottle of wine or a snowy mountain weekend with their children.