California ski guide company quietly closes months after Tahoe avalanche killed 9

The California company whose guides were leading skiers out of the Sierra Nevada backcountry when an avalanche struck their group and killed nine people, had ceased operations, according to an undated note on its website.

“Blackbird Mountain Guides is no longer operating,” a brief note on the company’s home page states. “We are forever grateful for the kindness of our community.”

Above that brief message is a eulogy to the nine people killed in the avalanche that released off Perry’s Peak. Among the dead were three Blackbird guides, and six of the company’s clients on a two night backcountry tour in the Castle Peak area near Donner Pass.

“Wherever we are in the mountains — every ridge, every quiet morning — the nine we lost are with us. In our hearts. Always,” the note says.

A company spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Shortly after the avalanche, the company had canceled scheduled trips and stopped accepting new bookings.

Skier and mountaineer Zeb Blais founded Blackbird in 2020. The company emerged during a period of rapid growth in backcountry skiing amid the coronavirus pandemic. A growing number of skiers had turned away from crowded ski resorts and chairlifts in favor of climbing peaks and ridges in search of untracked powder. Many sought avalanche training or experienced guides to navigate the backcountry safely.

Blackbird grew quickly, establishing a major presence in California and Washington’s mountain guiding industry and offering trips from British Columbia to Patagonia and Europe.

By 2024, Blackbird said it was offering more avalanche courses for the American Institute for Avalanche Research and Education than any other company in the country. The organization, known as AIARE, was one of two major groups developing avalanche safety curricula in the United States. Blackbird offered courses based on AIARE’s curriculum.

But in the wake of the avalanche, Blackbird faced scrutiny within the backcountry ski community, and some public furor, for its decision to exit from a set of comfortable huts alongside a mountain lake and head for a trailhead along Interstate 80 amid a fierce multi-day blizzard.

On the morning of the deadly avalanche, forecasters at the Sierra Avalanche Center issued a warning against traveling in avalanche terrain.

“Avalanches from above could travel down through treed terrain, often thought of as ‘safe’ during storms,” the warning read. “Travel in, near, or below avalanche terrain is not recommended.”

The company subsequently faced $151,300 in fines from the workplace safety agency Cal-OSHA. Blais said the company was contesting the fines, which included allegations that Blackbird failed to report an employee's death and provide guides with required safety equipment.

The fines “do not reflect the reality of our profession or the safety program we have built,” the company said in a statement at the time.

Some of the equipment requirements were disputed among backcountry skiers. One device cited by Cal-OSHA, called an AvaLung, had been discontinued from retail production.

After the avalanche, the Nevada County Sheriff’s Office opened an investigation into possible criminal negligence involving the deaths of the six clients. The case was referred to the county prosecutor’s office in late August. Prosecutors had not announced whether criminal charges would be filed.

A Sacramento Bee review of federal and county court records on Wednesday morning found no evidence of civil lawsuits filed by the families of the six clients who died.

The six women were experienced skiers and longtime friends. They and two friends who survived the avalanche had ties to the Bay Area. Some divided their time between homes in Marin County and ski houses near Donner Pass.

In public statements, Blais has described the company’s decision to exit the set of huts at Frog Lake and ski out to the highway amid the blizzard as within keeping with mountain guide training. The guides were following a route the company had labeled for use during times of high avalanche danger, according to a report by an independent investigator and snow safety expert commissioned by the company.

The valley where the avalanche struck held safer terrain on its western side, beyond the reach of known avalanche paths descending from Perry’s Peak, according to the report. GPS tracks from one of the guides who died suggested the group may have tried to travel along the safer western side but turned back because of an open creek.

Mountain guides and skiers familiar with the area previously told The Sacramento Bee that the valley where the group was caught could be navigated safely during periods of high avalanche danger. But they said the Blackbird group appeared to have strayed too far east, beneath the dangerous slopes of Perry’s Peak.

Experts also told The Bee that heavy snowfall would have severely limited the guides’ visibility. Digital mapping tools commonly used by skiers on smartphones also would have been difficult to operate while navigating a blizzard and monitoring a large group.

In April, the Sierra Avalanche Center, which is a public-private partnership with the U.S. Forest Service, issued its own report on the avalanche. Investigators concluded that the Blackbird group had violated several avalanche safety recommendations, including guidelines on group size. The avalanche traveled 400 feet before striking the group. It buried all but two people, a guide and a client who had fallen behind while dealing with an equipment problem. The two freed a third person who was partially buried. Together, the three dug out three other skiers.