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Blackbird Mountain Guides Fined

A Look at the CAL/OSHA Workplace Safety Citations and Violations.

By

Jason Albert

Image and diagram from Sierra Avalanche Center.

CAL/OSHA, the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health, issued Blackbird Mountain Guides (BMG) and its successors a list of citations, violations, and fines totaling $151,300 on 8/12/26. CAL/OSHA is the state agency responsible for setting and enforcing workplace safety standards. The fines were handed down as a result of BMG’s involvement on  2/17/26 in…

Responses

  1. Jeremiah Langston

    It strikes me that many of these citations would require guide services to have detailed manuals contemplating every possible contingency in the backcountry and require guides to adhere to that guidance. I’m not a guide, but having such a mechanical “if/then” approach to taking clients out and keeping them safe seems unwise. Instead, it seems much more prudent to leave room for informed discretion. Otherwise, what’s the point of getting several years of education as a guide if all you have to do is follow a manual that contemplates every scenario?

    1. Jason Albert

      Your “informed discretion” wording is spot on. For fear of editorializing too much, which I suppose I can/will do here, this strict constructionist reading of the code seems potentially very self-limiting for guides/guide services. As we edited the story about the Perry Peak avalanche for the upcoming print issue, we began discussing the potential minefield of restrictions and litigation guides and their employers may face if civil/criminal proceedings get out of hand.

      In other words, treating occupational safety for guides (highly trained guides, I might add) as if it were similar to, say, a chicken-nugget factory (I know, that’s what came to mind) seems to miss the point. For the record, I have many friends (and a child) who guide, and so I do take their safety seriously…and the client’s too. Thanks for reading and commenting.

    2. Patrick Fink

      I can imagine creating and documenting/protocolizing a risk assessment process, such as a morning guide meeting with terrain evaluation and coding, to serve as an “operational system” or “effective procedure” for working in such an environment.

      By my read, Jason, I don’t think they’re calling a high danger an inherently no-go situation. It seems that they’re saying that there was a clear and anticipated hazard that they didn’t think was effectively mitigated, which seems to be a fair evaluation.

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