Guiding Company Fined by California for Tahoe Avalanche Deaths
After an avalanche killed nine people on a backcountry ski tour in Tahoe last winter, California’s workplace safety agency has cited guiding company Blackbird Mountain Guides for more than $150,000.
Among the violations cited by California’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health, the most significant is an $81,000 penalty for “failing to correct the imminent hazard posed by traveling in avalanche terrain when the avalanche danger was rated high.” Cal/OSHA found that this directly led to the deaths of three guides employed by Blackbird.
Other citations include failing to adequately identify and assess avalanche hazards, failing to provide effective employee training and failing to assess the need for protective equipment.
Cal/OSHA issued the citations on Aug. 12. Due to the agency’s role as a workplace safety monitor, its findings focused only on the three Blackbird guides who died. A Cal/OSHA spokesperson said a separate investigation by the agency’s Bureau of Investigations remains open.
Blackbird announced a formal appeal on Friday morning, saying it continues to cooperate with all investigations related to the avalanche. The company said it operated in full compliance with regulatory requirements and industry standards, and that its guides were highly certified.
“The citations do not reflect the reality of our profession or the safety program we have built,” the company said in a statement. “Mountain guiding takes place in dynamic wilderness environments where conditions change minute to minute — it’s not a controlled setting such as construction sites. We welcome the opportunity to work with Cal/OSHA to contextualize the unique realities of operating in backcountry environments.”
The February incident hit home for many Bay Area skiers who frequent Tahoe’s ski resorts and backcountry.
Of the nine victims, six of them were mothers, several living in the Bay Area, part of a group of eight women who were skilled and frequent backcountry skiers. The three other victims were guides whom Blackbird praised at the time for their professionalism and “passion for the mountains.”
In a February report by The New York Times, two surviving members of the party detailed their harrowing attempts to rescue their buried group members.
The Nevada County Sheriff’s Office opened its own investigation of the incident in late February. That office confirmed Friday the case has been turned over to the Nevada County District Attorney’s Office. The office did not respond to KQED’s inquiries on Friday.
In an independent report prepared for Blackbird Mountain Guides earlier this month, avalanche professional Don Sharaf concluded the group was attempting to get out of avalanche danger when the slide hit but was obstructed by an unusually open creek, normally bridged by snow.
“There is nothing easy about any part of this,” Blackbird wrote in a statement accompanying the report. “Nine deeply loved people are gone, three of them our own guides. There is still much that remains unknown, but this is the most complete information available so far and we hope the release of this information can help the community begin to heal together.”