A powerful February storm triggered California’s deadliest avalanche in modern history, killing nine of 15 backcountry skiers traveling from the Frog Lake huts near Lake Tahoe. Joshua Partlow carefully and tactfully picks through the decisions and route choices that may have contributed to this tragedy amid forecast high avalanche danger. With an investigation underway, it is still too early for definitive answers, but not for the hard questions.
Two weeks after this tragedy, the guides’ decisions—to ski through a blizzard; to travel a risky route—remain the mystery at its center, as law enforcement and the wider community look for answers. The Nevada County sheriff’s office and California’s workplace-safety agency are investigating potential safety violations or criminal negligence by Blackbird. Zeb Blais, the owner of Blackbird, has offered condolences in a statement, but he has not otherwise spoken publicly. (His company referred questions to a public–relations firm that did not respond to requests for comment.) Blais himself has skied and guided in Alaska and Antarctica, Japan and the Himalayas; in a podcast a couple of years ago, while describing how guides monitor avalanche conditions, he allowed that “there’s just a certain degree of uncertainty that we just can’t eliminate.”
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