Accomplishments

Spanish Outreach

SAC staff published Avalanche Warning information in Spanish via social media and on the radio. This marks the first time that timely, live-saving Avalanche Warning information was posted in both English and Spanish. Through a translator, Ethan presented an Avalanche Awareness class to Spanish-speaking snow removal workers at Webb Landscape. Webb, along with other local snow removal, roofing, and maintenance companies are partnering with the SAC and Friends of SAC to help design content that meets the needs of Spanish-speaking users in our Valley. This includes essential workers who interact with avalanche terrain in our urban interfaces through their work with snow removal. Plans to produce and distribute an Avalanche Awareness video in Spanish are well underway.

Professional Avalanche Rescue Course

In February we organized and hosted the valley’s first-ever PROSAR Avalanche Rescue course, a four-day class for professional search and rescue workers. Manuel Genswein—one of the world’s foremost authorities on avalanche rescue—and Silverton Avalanche School staff presented on topics including multiple burials, close proximity burials, deep burials, extended rescue/recovery operations, and urban avalanche rescue. The course was attended by local emergency responders, medical professionals, ski area personnel, ski guides, and SAC staff.

Motorized Outreach

In Idaho, 24 of the last 26 backcountry avalanche fatalities were snowmobilers or snowbikers. Facilitating motorized avalanche education remains a top SAC priority. SAC forecasters and Friends of the SAC instructors reached over 400 motorized users this season through a Women’s Motorized Level 1 course, various speaking opportunities, and snowmobile club meetings. Chris and Scott instructed at an AIARE Pro 2 class that included a motorized group of professional students for the 2nd year in a row. Ride Rasmussen Style, a motorized guide service operating on the Caribou-Targhee NF in Island Park, began using our Professional Observation system to share and store their snow and avalanche data.

Website Updates

We made significant improvements to our Observations pages to make it easier for users to view and search for field data: Field Reports, Avalanche Occurrences, and Media. In addition to improving the organization of the data, we added “visualization” views that show graphs and plots of data. Especially for the Avalanche Occurrences, the visualization view makes it easier to tease out patterns and trends from the data. We also added redesigned and more powerful filters to help users sort through the data.

Idaho Mountain Express Avalanche Report Column

This season, we wrote a short weekly column for the Wood River Valley-based Idaho Mountain Express. Appearing in both the print newspaper and the online edition, it featured current conditions, educational tidbits, and more. A QR code with the column provided quick access to the current Avalanche Forecast.

Thunder Dragon Film Project

We are collaborating with Thunder Dragon, a Ketchum-based organization, to complete a video project/ public service announcement promoting the vital role avalanche centers play in serving mountain communities and the residents and tourists who enjoy winter recreation. The film is slated to be distributed locally, at other US avalanche centers, and at national film festivals and events (e.g. Warren Miller, Banff, Teton Gravity Research) in the fall of 2022.

Podcasts & Journals

Chris and local mountain guide Margaret Wheeler were featured on the Utah Avalanche Center podcast to discuss risk. Ben’s article What Patterns & Stories Reveal was featured in the late winter edition (40.3) of The Avalanche Review. “The world makes more sense when we can tell ourselves stories that we know, stories that we recognize. But this world doesn’t exist to make sense to you.”

Videos from the Field

We continue to receive overwhelmingly positive feedback on our video content. SAC staff published 80 videos on social media this season. Videos were watched nearly 235,000 times! We focused on short, informative videos that addressed current conditions and recent avalanche activity. Concise, simple, videos reduce the arduous task of video editing and allow for more frequent and timely information from the field.