As part of the Fifth Annual Avalanche Awareness Week, the Outdoor Programs at Utah State University collaborated with the Utah Avalanche Center on Dec. 6 to provide the public with information on avalanche awareness.
The event included a presentation titled “Know Before You Go” with input from Greg Davis, the assistant director of Outdoor Programs at USU, and Paige Pagnucco, the program director and avalanche forecaster for the Utah Avalanche Center.
Pagnucco said the center created “Know Before You Go” after the wake of a fatal avalanche that happened at Aspen Grove near Sundance Resort in 2003.
“That really set in motion this push for just greater general awareness of the avalanche danger in Utah,” she said.
“Know Before You Go” is broken down into four parts which are: get the forecast, get the gear, get the training and get the picture.
Pagnucco said if you spend any time in the backcountry during the winter, it’s important to read the avalanche forecast every day.
Davis said when it comes to gear, important pieces of equipment are a beacon, which can narrow down the area of where someone is buried under the snow; a probe, which can be pushed into the snow to pinpoint the person; and a metal shovel to dig the buried person out.
He said the goal of avalanche training is to train people on how to look for existing signs of avalanches. He said one can do that by looking through what’s called avalanche eyeballs.
“The whole avalanche eyeballs is now shifting that perspective of I want to ski that, to where are the avalanches? What's the potential for avalanches? So looking at things from more of a hazard perspective versus a fun perspective," Davis said.
Potential signs to look out for include cracking and collapsing snow, wind whipping snow, and recent avalanches in the area.
For more information on annual avalanche awareness week, visit utahavalanchecenter.org.
