Avalanche problems. What are they and where did they come from? Why do we use them? Here is an online version of an article we originally published in the Avalanche Review, which is a professional avalanche journal in the U.S. Several years ago, the Utah Avalanche Center came up with the current list of avalanche problems, which we distilled down from a paper presented by Roger Atkins. The avalanche problems and the icons we created have spread to many other avalanche centers in the U.S. and around the world. I was on the committee last summer that came up with the …

Here are some charts of the backcountry avalanches in our database so far this season. As usual, the aspect northeast comes up again and again. This is because of the combination between shady, cold slopes, wind deposits and slope steepness and the number of people. 1) Slopes facing the north half of the compass are colder because they are shadier, which form and preserve faceted snow, which causes almost all avalanches in our region. 2) Wind blows from the west, so it tends to drift snow onto the east facing slopes. 3) Because of the above two factors, glaciers from the …

I went skiing in the Ruby Mountains of Nevada on my day off on Monday. When your good friend with prostate cancer from out of town calls on Saturday night and says, "We're going skiing in the Rubies on Monday and you're coming as well", you have no choice but to pack your stuff. Fittingly, he and mutual friend Terry picked a line called Terminal Cancer, a striking line plucked by Joe Royer back in the late 70s. Plenty of folks like to post the rad sick line they just hit...but the goal here is to convey the homework that goes into it - at home, and in the mountains. …

This seems like a good time for a primer on glide avalanches since there was a skier buried to his neck and injured his leg in an avalanche that appears to have been a natural glide avalanche that released high on the slope above the party. We will investigate the slide today and let you know the final verdict. Glide avalanches occur when the entire snowpack"glides" slowly down the slope--similar to a glacier--until it releases catastrophically at seemingly random times. See the animation below created by Jim Conway for the Utah Avalanche Center. …

You'll see below one of the reasons we started a BLOG. We were forever receiving great questions via email...but often wondered if many others had the same question and/or would benefit from the same answer. The email is from a participant in our most recent Advanced Avalanche Class. My agenda for the class - How to Make Better Go/No Go Decisions in the Backcountry - is below: Take a microscope to the 7 Avalanche Problems (Storm Snow, Wind Slab, Persistent Slab, Loose Snow, Deep Slab, Wet Snow, Cornice) with the goal of better understanding why, how, and where they …

A great videoI found on New Schoolers. http://www.newschoolers.com/watch/609717.0/Tech-Talk---Touring?c=11&o=8&t=6