For those who think of LA as palm trees and movie stars.

Two mountain avalanches killed a skier and left another person missing Friday as California strained under nearly a week of heavy snowfall and extraordinary rain.

The skier was a local ski resort employee who was caught around noon in the first of two avalanches near Wrightwood in the San Gabriel Mountains. He was taken to Desert Valley Hospital where he died about 4:30 p.m., said hospital spokeswoman Jana Retes. His name was not released.

As night fell, searchers were still looking for another person who was missing after a second avalanche about a half-mile from the first, on national forest land.

The avalanches occurred in areas outside the Mountain High ski resort’s boundaries.

Normally, most of the snow in LA’s ski resorts is man-made, so avalanches are not a major threat. But we’ve had a series of big storms in the last two weeks.

Forecasters had predicted a dry winter.