Our Role in the Community

We strive to make a positive impact in our community, beyond the benefits that our services provide to our customers. We're looking for ways to include more people and preserve the incredible places where we work and play for our generation and the future.

We're starting here, with a  Land Acknowledgement and a  BIPOC Avalanche Course Scholarship in the Truckee / Lake Tahoe area, but please feel free to reach out with other ideas! 

Land Acknowledgement

“It is important to understand the longstanding history that has brought you to reside on the land, and to seek to understand your place within that history. Land acknowledgements do not exist in a past tense, or historical context: colonialism is a current ongoing process, and we need to build our mindfulness of our present participation.” Northwestern University

The lands on which we operate all of our domestic programs are the ancestral lands of various Indigenous people.  We recognize the people who inhabited and stewarded the land for thousands of years before European colonization. Our Land Acknowledgement page recognizes the traditional lands of the tribes in each area.  

This land acknowledgement is one small step toward true allyship and we commit to uplifting the voices, experiences, and histories of the Indigenous people of this land and beyond.

 

Blackbird BIPOC Avalanche Scholarship

The purpose of the Blackbird BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) Avalanche Course Scholarship is to acknowledge structural racism that has contributed to a lack of representation in the ski industry and remove financial barriers to avalanche education to make backcountry skiing more accessible and representative of our population as a whole.

To that end, we are offering an AIARE 1, a Women's AIARE 1, or Lift Accessed Avalanche Rescue course to the chosen recipient.  This avalanche course scholarship will be for an in- person course in the Truckee / Lake Tahoe area. 

Update: The application period has been extended and now ends Dec 20, 2021.  You will be notified via email once the scholarship decision has been made as soon after the application period has ended as we can.

Apply Here for the Blackbird BIPOC Avalanche Scholarship.