Cal/OSHA investigation on deadly Tahoe-area avalanche finds multiple safety violations
By Carlos E. Castañeda
The California Division of Occupational Safety and Health has issued multiple citations and penalties to a backcountry guide company involved in the state’s deadliest avalanche earlier this year near Lake Tahoe.
On February 17, a group of skiers and their guides were returning from a three-day backcountry trip in the Castle Peak area of Nevada County when they were caught in an avalanche during whiteout conditions. Nine people, six skiers and three guides, died.
On Friday, Cal/OSHA released a series of workplace citations issued to the company, Blackbird Mountain Guides (BMG), following inspections of the company after the avalanche. Cal/OSHA said BMG had multiple serious violations, including that it willfully failed to correct the imminent hazard of traveling in an area with high avalanche danger, “or failed to ensure employees did not make decisions contrary to forecast recommendation,” directly resulting in employee deaths.
The group had continued their backcountry trip after an avalanche watch was issued two days before the avalanche, and an avalanche warning had been issued the morning of the incident.
Other citations included failing to adequately assess the avalanche hazards, failing to provide effective employee training, and failing to assess the need and provide personal protective equipment, such as avalanche air bags.
A total of seven citations were issued to BMG on August 12, with proposed penalties totaling $151,300. A spokesperson for the state Department of Industrial Relations said that a separate investigation by Cal/OSHA’s Bureau of Investigations remains open.
The nine avalanche victims were from the San Francisco Bay Area, the Tahoe-Truckee area, and Boise, Idaho.
Earlier this month, the Nevada County Sheriff’s Office forwarded its investigation into the avalanche to the district attorney’s office for review of possible criminal charges against the company.
On August 9, Blackbird Mountain Guides released a report on the incident prepared by a veteran avalanche and backcountry ski professional commissioned by BMG. The report did not assign any blame for the tragedy, but indicated that the guides knew the avalanche danger was high.
The report also said that “guiding under elevated avalanche hazard is a recognized and accepted professional practice” when proper risk-management practices are applied. However, the report did not state why the group decided to leave the safety of the huts where they were staying as conditions worsened and until after the avalanche danger had passed.
In a statement on its website, Blackbird Mountain Guides said it was appealing the citations and said the findings “do not reflect the reality of our profession or the safety program we have built.”
“We believe Blackbird operated in full compliance with all applicable regulatory requirements and consistent with the established safety frameworks of the broader professional mountain guiding industry,” the statement said. “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.”
