If it can ride, it can slide

With win­ter here in the Cas­cades and across the north­ern lat­i­tudes there are things to do besides just dream of pow. Exer­cise. And noth­ing wrong with wax­ing up your boards. But, equal­ly impor­tant is get­ting your­self men­tal­ly ready to con­front the haz­ards win­ter also brings.

There are lots of resources for get­ting your­self edu­cat­ed on the dan­gers of avalanch­es and how to man­age the risks, includ­ing some of our cours­es list­ed below. But, one of the best for North­west skiers and snow­board­ers is the North­west Avalanche Cen­ter. They’re gear­ing up for the sea­son and below you’ll find some great resource links and some things to think about before the snow­pack gets big. 

Writ­ten by Dal­las Glass

When deal­ing with ear­ly-sea­son avalanche haz­ards the bot­tom-line is sim­ple: If there’s enough snow to ride, there’s enough snow to slide. Whether you’re out in the moun­tains hik­ing, hunt­ing, ski­ing, climb­ing, snow­board­ing, or rid­ing, approach steep smooth snow-cov­ered slopes with cau­tion and bring your avalanche res­cue gear. Don’t let the date on the cal­en­dar fool you when you encounter win­ter-like con­di­tions; ear­ly sea­son avalanche fatal­i­ties have occurred.

You are most like­ly to encounter ear­ly sea­son avalanche haz­ards in high­er ele­va­tion ter­rain, on per­ma­nent snow­fields, and in wind-loaded pock­ets. This can pose a dilem­ma since these are fre­quent­ly the same loca­tions where ear­ly-sea­son recre­ation­al oppor­tu­ni­ties exist. Pay atten­tion to how much snow is on the ground and where the wind may pile the snow deep­er. This can help you rec­og­nize when you tran­si­tion into areas of deep­er snow. Lim­it­ed infor­ma­tion this time of year can make assess­ing avalanche haz­ard more dif­fi­cult. When you find a steep smooth snowy slope assume it could avalanche, take time to make obser­va­tions, and con­sid­er low­er angle ter­rain. Ear­ly sea­son con­di­tions har­bor numer­ous obsta­cles and can make even small avalanch­es dead­ly by car­ry­ing you through rocks, into trees, or over cliffs. 

If you’re out in the moun­tains let us know what you find. You can share infor­ma­tion with your avalanche com­mu­ni­ty by sub­mit­ting an observation.

NWAC is active­ly prepar­ing for win­ter. Avalanche and moun­tain weath­er fore­casts typ­i­cal­ly begin in mid to late Novem­ber as the win­ter snow­pack starts to build. In the mean­time, take a moment to check over your gear, refresh on your snow and avalanche train­ing, and get excit­ed about the win­ter to come.

NWAC Staff

Thanks to NWAC for this great primer from a few years back, info applic­a­ble for every win­ter. If you’re inspired to get some more train­ing for your win­ter adven­tures, below are some links to get your plan­ning start­ed with Moun­tain Madness.

Avalanche Edu­ca­tion Cours­es (all fol­low the Avalanche Insti­tute of Research and Edu­ca­tion guidelines):

Res­cue Course – one day

Lev­el One – course work includes one evening lec­ture and two field days

Lev­el Two – pro­fes­sion­al lev­el certification

Back­coun­try ski­ing and snow­board­ing courses:

Back­coun­try Ski­ing Fun­da­men­tals Course — gets the basics cov­ered and then some; sched­uled trips avail­able or cus­tom courses

Split­board Back­coun­try Basics — for first-time back­coun­try split­board­ers, or those with some expe­ri­ence; lots of top­ics cov­ered for both

Guid­ed Trips:

Cas­cades Back­coun­try Ski Tours — choose your route, or let the guides find the secret stash­es of pow for you