The warnings were clear and eerie.
A winter storm warning forecast up to 8 feet of snow in California’s Lake Tahoe Region and avalanche conditions were considered "very dangerous." Blackbird Mountain Guides, now under scrutiny for its role in the deadliest avalanche in the U.S. in four decades, had multiple social media posts that acknowledged possible avalanche threats in the region.
“Big storm incoming!” one post read on Feb. 15. “Avalanches could behave abnormally, and the hazard could last longer than normal.”
That same day, an ill-fated group of 11 clients led by four guides with Blackbird Mountain Guides left for a three-day trip that would end in tragedy.
They went to a pristine alpine lake called Frog Lake, just a few miles northeast of the infamous Donner Party disaster of 1847. They stayed in the hard-to-reach Frog Lake huts for two nights and enjoyed a full day of backcountry skiing. But on the last and third day of the trip, an avalanche came crashing down, killing three guides and five guests, and leaving six survivors. A ninth person was not found and is presumed dead.
