American Avalanche Association recognized provider for Recreation Track Level 1 & Avalanche Rescue & Level 2 courses through the Chugach Mountain Institute. We also offer guided backcountry skiing & splitboarding, guided backpacking trips, and outdoor education programs. Visit ChugachSnow.org to learn more.
The Anchorage Avalanche Center provided avalanche-safety focused snow-season backcountry information and education for the Western Chugach Mountains (Chugach State Park) for nine seasons as a grassroots, volunteer effort.
While we are no longer providing this pro bono service, Chugach State Park still desperately needs a professional avalanche information program. There is no comparable avalanche terrain in such close proximity to a large population of recreationists that lacks such a program anywhere else in the developed world. Anchorage deserves better.
This website will continue to exist as a model and template for an efficient and effective professional avalanche information program that could be sustained with minimal funding.
Learn more about the history of the project via this paper, which was presented at the 2014 International Snow Science Workshop.
Anchorage Avalanche Center mission:
- Enhance the safety, awareness, and enjoyment of snow-season Western Chugach (Chugach State Park) backcountry users.
- Promote public lands, sustainable outdoor recreation, ecological consciousness, and environmentally responsible behavior.
- Contribute to Alaskan backcountry/mountain culture.
Anchorage Avalanche Center vision:
- Comprehensive avalanche safety and snow-season backcountry travel information and education for the Western Chugach (Chugach State Park).
- An Alaskan citizenry that recognizes the immeasurable value of its public land, engages in sustainable outdoor recreation for individual and collective wellness, works toward sustainability in all domains of life, practices environmentally responsible behavior, and possesses an imminently necessary ecological consciousness.
- An inclusive, supportive, diverse, and equitable Alaskan backcountry/mountain culture.
Values & Philosophy
Diversity, equity, community, innovation, consciousness, excellence, and FUN.
The fate of the human species is dependent on changing the way we live on this planet. Our current rate of resource consumption and waste is unsustainable, and modern civilization has distanced humanity from its evolutionary heritage in the natural world. Outdoor recreation is an effective means of reconnecting individuals and communities to their natural heritage, developing a more caring relationship with the Earth, and inducing states of ecstasy!
Forecasts: avalanche forecasts and danger updates for the Western Chugach (with an emphasis on the most popular snow-season recreation areas in Chugach State Park)
Observations: recreational conditions in the greater Anchorage area (focused on snowpack conditions in the Western Chugach)
Education: statewide learning opportunities and online resources for getting “avy savvy”
Trip Reports: inspiration, philosophy, and stoke that contributes to Alaskan mountain culture
Gear Reviews: our favorite equipment that makes big days in wild Alaskan mountains possible
Close call: three people were caught and carried by this avalanche just above the South Fork Eagle River trailhead (photo by Suzie Mauro, edited by AAC).