Looking over the last 10 winters at the avalanche fatalities across the state. What's the trend? Where do they occur...and to whom? One might look at a running average of 4 fatalities/year against explosive growth in backcountry use over the past 10 years and draw any number of conclusions.

At first glance, one might be lulled into looking at these numbers as numbers; but intruth each number is a person - a friend, husband, wife, child, or colleague. The numbers belie the real storiespunctuated by real events with real people affected by close calls and, unfortunately, tragedy.

For a more complete list and map of all of the avalanche fatalities in the current era, scroll to Detailed Info>Fatalities. Sifting through old Snowy Torrents books, forecaster Brett Kobernik has put together a nice page for us here at the UAC.