Three Australians were lucky to survive a massive Californian ski resort avalanche, which has left one man dead.

The avalanche at Palisades Tahoe, formerly known as Square Valley and the site of the 1960 Winter Olympics, happened on Thursday morning Australian time.

The Placer County Sheriff’s Office identified the person killed as Kenneth Kidd, 66, a resident of nearby Truckee and Point Reyes.

Siblings Hannah Sugerman and Oliver Thompson were on the slopes with Ms Sugerman’s partner Callum when the trio was hit by the avalanche.

Ms Sugerman did not hear the avalanche coming but could feel the ground beneath her rolling, she said.

“The snow weighed far more than I ever could have imagined,” she told Nine.

The siblings were buried in the snow, with Mr Thompson saying the avalanche “boosted” him off cliffs and he thought he was going to die.

Ms Sugerman and her partner found each other, but had to look for Mr Thompson who was hundreds of metres down the mountain with a dislocated knee and fractured tibia and fibula, Nine reported.

“The first thing he said to me when we skied up to him on the side of the hill, he’s like, ‘I thought you were dead’. And I said, ‘I thought you were dead,” Ms Sugerman said.

Mr Thompson added: “I’m alive so I think that’s all that matters”.

It was not immediately clear what triggered the avalanche, but heavy snows and high winds have pounded the mountainous area for the past day.

Michael Gross, vice president of mountain operations at Palisades Tahoe, told reporters the resort’s ski patrol had been carrying out avalanche assessments in the area where the slide took place and deemed it safe to open to the public.

It was normal to open a ski run amid heavy snows, he said. 

The avalanche debris field was about 45m wide, 140m long and three metres deep, the Placer County Sheriff’s office said.

AAP with Reuters