Nine people died on a guided backcountry ski trip near Perry’s Peak and Castle Peak on February 17, 2026. Three of them were Blackbird Mountain Guides LLC employees. Six were clients. Cal/OSHA’s Sacramento District Office issued the Citation and Notification of Penalty on August 12, 2026 (Inspection 1875975). Combined proposed penalties: $151,300. The company appealed. A separate Bureau of Investigations file remains open. None of that is a court verdict.
If you guide, patrol, or work avalanche terrain in California, this is what the citation packet actually alleged — and what you can do next.
What Cal/OSHA issued
The packet lists seven items. All are marked Corrected During Inspection. Proposed penalties:
- Citation 1, Item 1 — Regulatory, Title 8 §342(a) — $5,000. Failure to report the three employee deaths to the Division immediately (as soon as practically possible, not longer than eight hours after the employer knows or with diligent inquiry would have known).
- Citation 1, Item 2 — General, Title 8 §3395(i) — $500. No effective written Heat Illness Prevention Plan available at the worksite covering water, shade, high-heat procedures, emergency response, and acclimatization.
- Citation 2, Item 1 — Serious, Title 8 §3203(a) — $16,200. Injury and Illness Prevention Program (IIPP) not established, implemented, and maintained as required.
- Citation 3, Item 1 — Serious accident-related, Title 8 §3203(a)(4) — $16,200. Failure to identify and evaluate workplace hazards: guided tours under a “high” avalanche warning; the change from “considerable” to “high” with a recommendation not to travel in, near, or below avalanche terrain; combining two guided groups; incomplete AM operational Hazard and Risk Forms.
- Citation 4, Item 1 — Serious, Title 8 §3203(a)(7) — $16,200. Training: risk-mitigation forms filled inaccurately; emergency-response training that did not keep employees from bypassing the Incident Command Post.
- Citation 5, Item 1 — Serious, Title 8 §3380(f)(1)(A) — $16,200. PPE hazard assessment: avalanche airbags and AvaLungs not selected and used.
- Citation 6, Item 1 — Willful-serious accident-related, Title 8 §3203(a)(6) — $81,000. Failure to correct the imminent hazard of travel in, near, or below avalanche terrain, or to keep employees from decisions contrary to the forecast.
Do not invent additional Title 8 sections. The packet is the source.
What the labels mean
Regulatory (Title 8 §334(a)): permit, posting, recordkeeping, or reporting — here, the eight-hour fatality report.
General (Title 8 §334(b)): a safety-or-health violation specifically determined *not* to be serious.
Serious (Title 8 §334(c); Labor Code §6432): a rebuttable presumption if Cal/OSHA shows a realistic possibility that death or serious physical harm could result from the actual hazard. Breaking a standard is not enough by itself. The employer can rebut by showing it did not know, and could not with reasonable diligence have known, of the violation.
Willful (Title 8 §334(e)): an intentional and knowing violation, or knowledge of an unsafe condition with no reasonable effort to eliminate it. Willful-serious accident-related is the top of this packet. Accident-related (Labor Code §6319(d); Title 8 §336) means the Division determined that death or serious injury was caused by a serious, willful, or repeated violation. Those penalties are not reduced for good faith, history, or abatement credit — only for size of the business.
Citations on appeal are not final
An employer has 15 working days from receipt to contest at the Occupational Safety and Health Appeals Board. Blackbird filed. Until a final Board order — or withdrawal, settlement, or default — proposed penalties can be reduced, reclassified, or withdrawn. Employees may participate as third parties and may appeal the reasonableness of an abatement date.
What you can do next
- Get the inspection file. Public Records Act, Government Code Division 10 (commencing with §7920.000). The 10-day determination clock, and the optional 14-day extension, are in Government Code §7922.535. Use DIR’s form, email DOSHPRA@dir.ca.gov, or go to a district office. Identify Blackbird Mountain Guides LLC, Inspection 1875975, I-80 & Frog Lake (Castle Peak), Truckee, February 17–August 12, 2026. Ask for citations, the inspection report, photographs, and appeal status. Also search OSHA’s public establishment search.
- File a Cal/OSHA complaint if the hazard is still on a job you can see. Anyone can file. An employee or employee representative complaint is “formal”; everyone else’s is “non-formal.” You do not need the Title 8 number. You do need enough detail to find the hazard. Call the district office for that zip code (8 a.m.–5 p.m., weekdays) or use the zip-code locator. Workers can also call 833-579-0927, 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. weekdays, for a live bilingual representative. Your name is confidential unless you ask to be named.
- If you get punished for speaking up, that is a different filing. Labor Code §6310 bars discharge or discrimination because you complained about unsafe conditions, participated in a safety committee, reported a work-related fatality, injury, or illness, or asked for injury records. Labor Code §6311 bars layoff or discharge for refusing work that would violate the Labor Code or a safety order where that violation would create a real and apparent hazard. File with the Labor Commissioner under Labor Code §§6312 and 98.7. Current §98.7 gives you one year from the retaliatory act. You may also file a concurrent federal OSHA whistleblower complaint within 30 days. Call 833-526-4636.
FAQs
If Blackbird appealed, can I still use these citations? Yes — as proposed Cal/OSHA findings, not as a final Board order. Quote the packet. Say the case is appealed.
Does Cal/OSHA’s file cover the six clients? Cal/OSHA’s authority is workplace safety for employees. The three employee deaths are what the citations address. The six client deaths are a different legal track (sheriff / district attorney). Immigration status is not a condition of Cal/OSHA protection for workers.
Sources
Cal/OSHA Citation and Notification of Penalty, Inspection 1875975, issued August 12, 2026, Blackbird Mountain Guides LLC (Sacramento District Office). OSHA establishment search: https://www.osha.gov/ords/imis/establishment.inspection_detail?id=1875975.015. Title 8 §§334, 336, 342, 3203, 3380, 3395. Labor Code §§6310, 6311, 6312, 6317, 6319, 6432, 98.7. Government Code §§7920.000–7931.000, 7922.535. Complaint: https://www.dir.ca.gov/dosh/Complaint.htm. District locator: https://www.dir.ca.gov/asp/doshzipsearch.html. PRA: https://www.dir.ca.gov/dosh/pra-Requests.html. OSHAB: https://www.dir.ca.gov/OSHAB/oshabappealpro.html.
*Educational use only — not legal advice, not a filing, and not a final-order finding. Proposed penalties can change on appeal. Verify current statute and docket status before you act.*
The Hedge 