Because sound avalanche awareness isn’t important just for ski mountaineers who climb towering backcountry peaks in search of pristine powder slopes, the Colorado Avalanche Information Center is aiming to raise avalanche awareness this winter among novice backcountry skiers and snowshoers who think they’re touring in relatively tame terrain.
In partnership with the American Institute for Avalanche Research and Education (AIARE) and the Seattle-based Northwest Avalanche Center, the CAIC is launching “Avalanche Aware,” a free on-demand online primer. The program is an hour-long, self-paced course that gives inexperienced backcountry travelers basic information to help them stay safe.
Colorado has many popular backcountry trails for ski touring and snowshoeing that traverse relatively flat terrain that will not slide, but those trails sometimes are located at the foot of slopes that could produce avalanches from above under the right circumstances. The Avalanche Aware online program is designed to help inexperienced users know where and when it’s safe.
“One of the wonderful things about Colorado is the amount of winter-recreation possibilities,” said CAIC director Ethan Greene. “People need to remember that anytime we have snow on a steep surface, avalanches are possible. We want people to go into the backcountry with good knowledge about avalanche conditions so they can enjoy the Colorado mountains and come home safely.”
The Avalanche Aware curriculum was first made available in 2023 for in-person training sessions, and last year there were more than 100 of those events in Colorado alone. For the first time this year, anyone can do it online at will.
“We’re trying to expand the ways people can get this content,” Greene said.
There were 22 avalanche fatalities in the United States last winter. In Colorado, nine backcountry users were injured and three were killed. The Colorado record for fatalities is 12, which occurred in 1993 and 2011. In 2023, there were 11.
Advanced avalanche education involves multi-day courses that include hands-on sessions in the field. The Avalanche Aware program is more basic, teaching students where to find and interpret local avalanche forecasts, recognize avalanche terrain, learn clues to hazardous snow and identify areas where slides are most likely to occur.
Greene also urges novice snowshoers and skiers to check the CAIC’s daily avalanche forecasts before venturing into the backcountry, as experienced ski mountaineers do, even if they’re heading to moderate terrain. Those reports rate avalanche risk at numerous locations around the state on a 1-to-5 rating scale: Low, Moderate, Considerable, High and Extreme. Conditions can change on a daily basis.
CAIC resumed daily reports for the ski season on Nov. 1. They are available online and on the CAIC app.
“The avalanche danger in the mountains right now is quite low,” Green said, “and the weather forecast doesn’t look like that’s going to change in the next few days, maybe in the next week.”