As backcountry skiing grew, Blackbird Guides grew with it. Then came deadly Sierra avalanche
For decades, skiing in the backcountry – far from chairlifts, parking lots and the apres-ski bar scene – was the domain of only the most dedicated, or the most anti-corporate, adherents of the sport.
The price of admission is steep, literally. To ski the backcountry’s undisturbed powder, first you have to get above it. Climbing uphill through the snow is physically grueling work. There are no ski lodges offering hot chocolate on a cold day – nor is there the assurance that ski patrollers will come to help you if you get hurt or lost.
And perhaps most critically, there is no one mitigating the threat of deadly avalanches, as patrollers do at ski resorts through the targeted use of explosives and other methods.
Last week’s avalanche in the Castle Peak area near Donner Pass — in which nine backcountry skiers and snowboarders, including three well-trained guides, were killed — has brought sudden public attention to this lesser known side of skiing. It’s a side that has grown rapidly, particularly since the 2020 pandemic. Blackbird Mountain Guides, the company that was responsible for the trip, has grown alongside it.
None of the skiers killed by the avalanche appear to have been novices. The six clients were a group of women who were longtime friends and, according to a statement issued by their families, experienced backcountry skiers. Six other people survived the avalanche, three of whom were not caught when the avalanche struck, and were able to dig out their three companions.
“They were trained and prepared for backcountry travel and trusted their professional guides on this trip,” the statement said. Some of the women were the mothers of talented skiers enrolled in an elite ski program at nearby Sugar Bowl Academy and spent much of their time in the Donner Pass area. The three guides were all trained educators in backcountry travel and avalanche safety.
The trip’s fatal end, just two miles from Interstate 80, on the way out from a modern set of backcountry lodgings, jumps out statistically even as it has rocked the California and global ski community emotionally. Ski safety experts note that as the number of people setting off into the backcountry has grown rapidly, avalanche fatality rates have not grown along with it. That’s a product, they say, of education, increased awareness and better forecasting methods.
Those statistics put more weight on the questions running through skiers’ minds in the wake of the Tahoe tragedy — namely, how such a large group of experienced backcountry travelers led by trained guides were caught by an avalanche threat that had been well-forecasted.
Growing sport, growing company
The popularity of the sport has exploded in recent decades, with some outdoor recreation researchers estimating the number of backcountry skiers grew eight-fold from 1995 to 2017. The COVID-19 pandemic supercharged that growth.
“Backcountry skiing exploded during the pandemic,” Wendy Antibus, education coordinator for the Sierra Avalanche Center, said. “It has slightly tapered off since then.”
Ski resorts closed for the latter half of the 2020 season, and even in the years to come, people were reluctant to mingle too rapidly with large crowds. Backcountry skiing was just one of many outdoor sports that saw a surge in participants, Saylor Flett, a program coordinator for the Outdoor Recreation Leadership program at Feather River College, said.
“That moment in time created a lot of interest for folks as they were exploring alternative activities to whatever their normal habits may have been,” he said.
Blackbird Mountain Guides, the company who led an ultimately fatal trip into the backcountry near Donner Pass last week, was created in 2020, amid that pandemic surge in backcountry skiing, according to its business filings.
On the company’s website, founder Zeb Blais, an accomplished mountaineer, says he founded the company to “help his clients reach their lofty mountain goals in good style.”
Alongside backcountry skiing, Blackbird grew quickly, establishing a major presence in the mountain guiding scene of California and Washington and around the globe, from British Columbia to Patagonia and Europe.
Blackbird operates as both a tour guide company, helping experienced and hardy skiers, snowboarders and climbers achieve new milestones in the mountains, and as an educator, particularly in the field of avalanche safety. Demand for those classes — in which participants learn how to navigate avalanche terrain, how to read the snowpack and look for warning signs, and how to rescue their companions should the worst happen — has grown alongside backcountry skiing’s popularity.
In 2024, four years after its founding, Blais bought out a different Tahoe-area guide company, NASTC Rock Climbing School, that focused on rock climbing and advanced ski trips.
That same year, in another sign of growth, Blackbird announced it was running more avalanche courses for the American Institute for Avalanche Research and Education than any company in the country. AIARE is one of two main organizations responsible for developing avalanche safety curriculum in the United States. Blackbird marketed and taught in the field coursework that AIARE developed.
In the immediate aftermath of the avalanche, a spokesperson for AIARE emphasized that its staff design avalanche safety curriculum but aren’t guides.
“Organizations that utilize AIARE curriculum operate independently and are responsible for their own operational decisions and risk management practices,” AIARE Education Director Emma Walker said in a statement. “I can confirm that AIARE was not involved in the planning or on-the-ground operations of the trip on which this incident occurred, and no AIARE staff were present at the time of the incident.”
In his own statement on Feb. 17, the day of the tragedy, Blais noted that all four of the guides on the trip were certified to teach AIARE courses. “This was an enormous tragedy, and the saddest event our team has ever experienced,” he said. “In addition to mourning the loss of six clients, we also mourn the loss of three highly experienced members of our guide team.”
In an Instagram post made to the company’s account the weekend before the storm, Blackbird guides noted the incoming blizzard would pile onto a layer of snow that could fail and lead to dangerous slides. “This weak layer could lead to some unpredictable avalanches,” the post warned.
The Sacramento Bee received what appeared to be an automated message from the company in response to a request for an interview with Blais. Blackbird had “suspended guided operations” in the wake of the Feb. 17 avalanche, the message said.
A subsequent message directed The Bee to a public relations firm that did not respond to an email Friday.
Expensive trip to modern backcountry huts
Backcountry skiing is no longer just for ski bums. Guide companies like Blackbird often cater to skiers who can’t wait around for perfect snow conditions but can pay professionals to optimize the time in the backcountry they do have.
The huts the group stayed in before the avalanche were also new. The Truckee Donner Land Trust built the Frog Lake huts in 2021, describing them at their opening as “a new overnight backcountry experience offering comfortable accommodations in truly rugged, wild terrain.”
Costs vary based on several factors, but Blackbird’s trips to the Frog Lake huts runs between $1,200 and $2,200, depending on the itinerary, according to the prices still listed on the website for this season. By comparison, $1,200 is around the cost of an annual season pass to many ski resorts, including in the Tahoe area.
Overnighting in rustic backcountry lodgings adds another layer of appeal to such trips. In backcountry huts, people gather close after a day spent skiing. In the glow of a wood or gas stove, they cook meals together and banter.
Such huts “truly offer the opportunity for people to connect with one another, and then connect with the natural world,” Ben Dodge, the executive director of the Tenth Mountain Division Huts, a system of similar backcountry ski lodges in Colorado, said. His hut association sees increased demand from skiers every year, Dodge said, and has also added new lodgings to its system.
Blackbird emphasizes that the company guides people into inclement weather, and that trips won’t be refunded because of storms or high avalanche danger. Instead, the company recommends people get trip insurance when they reserve their journeys. The Bee reviewed policies for other major mountain guiding companies and found that most carry similar rules around refunds for weather cancellations.
The group caught in the avalanche near Castle Peak had skied into the huts on Sunday, Feb. 15, in good weather. On Monday, at least some members of the group appear to have skied, climbing and descending ridge lines around the Frog Lake area, according to an activity log posted by one of the guides that day, as the storm system closed in and snow began to fall. They spent that night in the huts as the storm increased in intensity.
On Tuesday, they were seeking to exit before conditions deteriorated too rapidly when the avalanche caught them, survivors would later tell emergency first responders.
Changing ages of avalanche victims
The six women killed by the avalanche ranged in age from 42 to 52.
They are in some ways a statistical anomaly among avalanche deaths. The vast majority of avalanche victims are men, studies have found, and most are in their 20s and 30s. One study, published in 2020 ahead of the pandemic boom, found the ages of backcountry skiers dying in avalanches was ticking up.
From 1950 to 1989, the median victim was 27 years. From 1990 to 2018 that median age was 33 years old. During the 2020 to 2021 season, the median age shot up to 44 years old, catching the attention of researchers. Some have theorized the rising ages of victims are a symptom of people letting their guard down about avalanche risks after spending years in the backcountry.
“You can go a lot of places, a lot of times even when it’s a little bit dangerous and maybe make bad decisions and not have a bad outcome,” Ethan Greene, the director of the Colorado Avalanche Information Center, told The Bee.
“The difference between a fatal accident and a near miss can be a very small factor,” he said.
As skiers flocked to the backcountry in 2020, avalanche safety professionals braced themselves. A wave of inexperienced ski tourers, who perhaps skipped the requisite safety courses, seemed certain to correlate to more deaths in avalanche terrain.
“People expected that initially there would be a huge increase in avalanche fatalities,” Antibus said. “And there wasn’t.”
But over the last decade, the rate of avalanche fatalities has stayed relatively flat, experts say. On average, around 27 people a year have died in avalanches in the United States each winter, according to the Colorado Avalanche Information Center. Those rates include people on snowmobiles and snowshoes, mountain town residents and ski resort workers.
“The thing that is kind of crazy is that during this time when we all feel like the participation has increased, the number of deaths is flat or there’s a slight statistical decrease” Green told The Bee. “This week is going to complicate that.”
Including the nine deaths in Tahoe, there have now been 20 avalanche deaths this winter, according to the Colorado Avalanche Information Center’s database.
Questions — and hopefully lessons
Backcountry around the world are waiting for officials to release more information about what decisions Blackbird’s guides made leading into the tragedy.
The group was traveling through avalanche terrain on a day when forecasters cautioned strongly against it.
“Rapidly accumulating snowfall, weak layers in the existing snowpack, and gale-force winds that blow and drift snow have created dangerous avalanche conditions in the mountains,” Sierra Avalanche Center forecasters wrote in a warning they published in the early morning on Feb. 17, roughly six hours before the group got caught. “Natural avalanches are likely, and human-triggered avalanches large enough to bury or injure people are very likely.”
Though officials have not said whether Blackbird’s guides and clients read that forecast, the Frog Lake Huts advertise internet connectivity. In his statement, Blais said that “guides in the field are in communication with senior guides at our base, to discuss conditions and routing based upon conditions.”
Survivors later told rescuers that the group left the huts early to try and get out ahead of worsening conditions, according to Nevada County Sheriff’s officials. The decision to travel that day, as well as the choice of a route out that put them under avalanche terrain, are being examined now by investigators from various agencies.
There’s also the fact that the skiers appear to have been close together when the slide hit — contrary to the best practices taught by AIARE and other avalanche education providers, which call for skiiers to distance themselves so that if an avalanche strikes, people are left standing to rescue their friends.
“These sorts of incidents seem to occur as a result of a series of decisions,” Dodge, the Colorado hut manager, said. “Any one or two or three of which by themselves would not lead to consequential ends. But they stack up. And sometimes when they stack up the end results are really tragic.”
It remains to be seen if the tragedy will have any long-term impact on the sport’s popularity, but Dodge said future skiers, at least, can use the incident to inform their own future choices.
“There are lessons to be learned, there’s no doubt about that,” he said, “and I think the process that will unfold from here will hopefully affect and reduce the chances of a repeat situation.”
This story was originally published February 28, 2026 at 8:57 AM.
