Sign up to receive this in your email
(No more than once daily, often less depending on the amount of new news.)

Archive Index - All Editions

Avalanche fatality near Lookout Peak, Idaho

A man died in an avalanche that happened in the mountain's northwest of Cascade near Lookout Peak. Two people were snow biking on Sunday, Dec. 15 when they triggered an avalanche that fully buried one of the riders. Limited information is available but avalanche-center.org has a few photos, the initial official summary, and a direct link to an archived copy of the avalanche advisories.
More ... (Avalanche-Center.org, Membership required)

Deer Valley avalanche mitigation

Mark Chytka is the avalanche mitigation supervisor at Deer Valley Resort, where he has patrolled for 17 years. Chytka’s experience and familiarity with Deer Valley terrain is a huge asset to his ability to assess risk, he says.

A day of avalanche mitigation at Deer Valley begins before sunrise. A small crew arrives an hour ahead of the rest to assemble explosives for control routes. By 6:45 or 7 a.m., the full team will convene and receive a briefing on current hazards. “We meet with the team, hand out all the explosives, give them a rundown of the hazards that are out there. And then we distribute to our mountains that we’ll be doing the control work on,” Chytka said. Before heading out, team members ensure their safety gear — beacons, shovels, probes and airbags — is ready. Control work at Deer Valley is predominantly using explosives to trigger and test hotspots on the mountain. 

“Once we’ve gotten terrain open and people start skiing it up, we start feeling a little better about a lot of it,” said Chytka. “We step back more into maintenance mode, where we just maintain the stability that we have and look for any developing instability down lower in the snowpack.” Skier compaction is a secret weapon in avalanche mitigation: the more folks continue to carve down the slope, the more that snow is compacted to maintain stability. 
More ... (Park Record)

Avalanche on Man-Made Snow At Michigan Ski Area

Yesterday, Big Powderhorn Mountain Resort reported an avalanche slide on one of its trails. It occurred on the Double Barrel trail, which is classified as a black diamond. The steepness of the slope, along with the large amount of snow assembled on one of the snowmaking whales, likely caused the slide. Luckily, it sounds like nobody was hurt.
More ... (Unofficial Networks)