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You may be risking your life to ski unstable snow in avalanche terrain.
You may be risking your life to ski unstable snow in avalanche terrain.
Meanwhile, you could be having fun skiing in non-avalanche terrain without any of the avy risk.
Meanwhile, you could be having fun skiing in non-avalanche terrain without any of the avy risk.
There is a stigma that you need to expose yourself to avalanches to enjoy the backcountry; this is not true. With proper planning and intentional decisions, you can enjoy good snow in zones that are out of the reach of avalanches.
Non-avalanche terrain is:
Non-avalanche terrain is:
Not extreme, but still fun, and is the only way to guarantee that you will not be caught in an avalanche.
There are three things required for an avalanche;
There are three things required for an avalanche;
Terrain is the only one that you can control.
Terrain is the only one that you can control.
The snowpack
The snowpack
Non-controllable in the backcountry.
The trigger
The trigger
Non-controllable.
The terrain
The terrain
Controllable by your route choices.
Here is everything that you need to reduce your exposure to avalanches:
Here is everything that you need to reduce your exposure to avalanches:
My why:
My why:
"It has always made me feel uneasy seeing fresh tracks on dangerous slopes, especially when the avalanche forecast is unfavorable." Then...
"It has always made me feel uneasy seeing fresh tracks on dangerous slopes, especially when the avalanche forecast is unfavorable." Then...
When I heard the news of the horrific Feb. 17th avalanche near Truckee, CA, with nine fatalities, the deadliest in North America in decades, I felt like I needed to do something to help make the backcountry safer.
Traditional avalanche education is great, but not every backcountry user seeks it out. If they do take a course, generally, a lot of effort is put into teaching backcountry users about avalanche types and snow science, but these are very complicated things, easy to get wrong, and ultimately cannot guarantee that the snow will stay in place.
For this reason, I am focusing on strictly terrain as it is both the simplest and the most effective tool for reducing exposure to avalanches.
My goal with this site is two-fold. First, is to make a simple and clear resource on how to identify avy terrain, make routes that avoid it, and how to practically travel in safe areas. The second goal is to help change the perception of lower-angle slopes from something that is not worth skiing into a fun, safe, and low-risk option for days when the snowpack is unstable.
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Contact Me
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