Report finds group hit by deadly Sierra avalanche skirted basic safety practice

SAN JOSE, Calif. — A new report on the deadliest avalanche in California history — which killed nine backcountry skiers and guides in February near Lake Tahoe — found that a guided group deviated from basic safety practices in crossing slide-prone terrain close together despite a warning that avalanches were expected.

The report, compiled by the U.S. Forest Service National Avalanche Center and Colorado Avalanche Information Center, stops short of assigning blame but raises questions about the group’s decisions and the guiding company’s choice to travel as avalanche risk remained high. The tragedy remains under investigation by the local sheriff and state occupational safety authorities.

The report also found that a guide and client who fell behind due to a ski binding malfunction avoided being caught in the avalanche — and later helped rescue others.

“We offer the following comments based on what is known at the time of this report in hopes that they will help in avoiding future avalanche accidents,” the report said.

Nevertheless, it is the first official assessment of the tragedy, which remains under investigation by the local sheriff and state occupational safety authorities, to point to decision-making among the group as a factor. Among its comments:

—This group traveled below avalanche terrain and through the runout zone of an avalanche path.

—Exposing only one person at a time to avalanche terrain is an accepted best practice for backcountry travel.

—This group consisted of 15 people. Analysis of past avalanche accidents has indicated that larger group sizes (four or more people) have higher chances of being caught in avalanches.

The report further noted that a client and a guide were were “a ways behind the rest of the group due to the client experiencing an equipment problem with one of their ski binding toe pieces,” and that “this separation may have kept them from being caught in the avalanche along with the rest of their party.” It added that “the Guide and Client not caught in the avalanche were able to save the lives of others.”

Blackbird Mountain Guides said in a statement Friday that the report “does not reflect the full scope of what transpired and does not include all of the facts and information currently under review.” Company spokeswoman Mary Ann Pruitt said Blackbird is “cooperating fully with authorities and will share more when it is appropriate and based on verified and confirmed findings.”

Fifteen skiers — four guides from a local Truckee company and 11 of their clients — set out Feb. 17 at the end of a three-day stay at Frog Lake Huts northeast of Donner Summit. A blizzard raged, and the day’s avalanche report warned big slides were to be expected.

Thirteen of the group were hit by an avalanche that swept down a slope on Perry’s Peak, northwest of Frog Lake. One client unburied himself, and joined a guide and another client in digging out the other three survivors, according to the report. Three guides and six clients were killed.

The guides were leading their clients out on a day when the Sierra Avalanche Center classified the slide risk as “high” — one step below “extreme” — with large to very large avalanches caused by sliding slabs of snow “very likely.”

The report also noted that two separate client groups from Blackbird Mountain Guides — one a group of female friends with two guides, the other a trio of men with two guides — had been combined into a party of 15 for the trip out to the Castle Peak Snowpark trailhead beside I-80.

The day after the avalanche, company owner Zeb Blais said in a statement that all guides on the trip were “trained or certified in backcountry skiing” by the American Mountain Guides Association and were instructors with the American Institute for Avalanche Research and Education.

Guides in the field, Blais said, “are in communication with senior guides at our base, to discuss conditions and routing based upon conditions.”

On the day the 11 clients and their Blackbird guides skied in to Frog Lake Huts, Blackbird had posted a video on social media advising backcountry users of a looming storm and warned people to “use extra caution” and monitor alerts from the Sierra Avalanche Center.

The group left Frog Lake Huts amid what the report called an “intense storm” with high winds and “very poor visibility.”

The client who was buried and freed himself said he had seen a “wall of white” rushing at him, swirling with “strange blurs of colors” from people and skis tumbling within it, the report said, citing a New York Times article based on interviews with the man, Anton Auzans, and another client, Jim Hamilton of Capitola.

Auzans, still partially trapped, shouted, “We have people buried,” and pointed to the last spot he’d seen anyone.

While the guide used his beacon device to search for beacon signals from buried skiers, Hamilton saw a moving ski pole poking up out of the snow. It led him to a survivor, who had been able to breathe via a gap in the snow along his arm and ski pole. The guide found two others.

Hamilton, Auzans and the guide, who has not been publicly named, dug the three out.

The slide appears to have involved a thick slab of soft snow breaking loose at a weak layer in the snowpack, the report said. The avalanche descended approximately 400 vertical feet down a face of Perry’s Peak, creating a debris field about 100 feet wide, the report said.

It remains unclear whether the slide was triggered by the group or occurred naturally.

Some of the victims had been wearing backpacks equipped with airbags that can help keep people on the surface of an avalanche, but had not pulled the cords to deploy the bags, the report said.

Killed in the tragedy were Carrie Atkin, 46, of Soda Springs; Lizbeth Clabaugh, 52, of Boise, Idaho; Danielle Keatley, 44, of Soda Springs and Larkspur; Kate Morse, 45, of Soda Springs and Tiburon; Caroline Sekar, 45, of Soda Springs and San Francisco; and Katherine Vitt, 43, of Greenbrae.

Blackbird guides who lost their lives were Andrew Alissandratos, 34, of Verdi, Nevada; Nicole Choo, 42, of South Lake Tahoe; and Michael Henry, 30, of Tampa, Florida.

Many questions around the “human factors” that led up to the catastrophe, including decision-making and travel plans, remain unanswered, the report said.

“As more details emerge over time,” the report said, “more learning opportunities will present themselves.”