- The Anchorage Avalanche Center will be in Banff for the 2014 International Snow Science Workshop. Our presentation on Piloting an Avalanche Advisory Program for Public Recreation in Alaska’s Most Readily Accessible Avalanche Terrain: the Front Range and Eagle River Area Chugach Mountains will be on display in the Kinnear Centre Room 303/305 from 11:40am to 1:25pm (Banff time) Monday, September 29.
- The Anchorage Avalanche Center will be hosting a get-together at the BP Energy Center on Wednesday, October 22 from 7:00-9:00pm. Come hang out with fellow Anchorage area backountry enthusiasts, learn about the awesome opportunities for backcountry skiing and ski mountaineering in our backyard of Chugach State Park, and watch the French extreme ski-mountaineering film Downside Up (free admission, donations needed and appreciated):
- The Alaska Avalanche Information Center and Anchorage Avalanche Center will be hosting the annual Alaska Snow Safety Summit on Thursday, November 6 from 6:00-8:30pm at the BP Energy Center (click here to register):
- The Anchorage Avalanche Center concluded its second season of avalanche advisories and professional observations for the most frequently visited avalanche terrain of Chugach State Park with its April 26-27, 2014 weekend avalanche outlook. With a 100% volunteer staff of one, the Anchorage Avalanche Center provided advisories for 58 days and professional observations for 42 days during the 2013-14 season. The Anchorage Avalanche Center provided an avalanche outlook for every weekend from December 13, 2013 to April 27, 2014 plus additional advisories-outlooks and observations as much as possible and as conditions dictated due to increasing danger. If you find this avalanche information program valuable and would like to see it continue for seasons to come, please make a tax-deductible donation to help the Anchorage Avalanche Center achieve sustainability.
Support your local grassroots avalanche center!
Despite close proximity to the state’s most densely populated region, heavy wintertime use, rapidly increasing recreation in avalanche terrain in recent years, and 16 avalanche related fatalities in the past few decades, Chugach State Park (CSP) lacked an organized avalanche information program prior to the development of the grassroots Anchorage Avalanche Center (provided through a partnership with the non-profit Alaska Avalanche Information Center). CSP’s most popular, and Alaska’s most readily accessible, avalanche terrain of the Front Range and Eagle River areas comprise the Anchorage Avalanche Center’s core advisory zones.
Anchorage Avalanche Center mission: to increase the safety, awareness, and recreational enjoyment of winter backcountry enthusiasts visiting the avalanche terrain of Anchorage’s backyard mountain playground (Chugach State Park) through an avalanche advisory program, forum for public snow-avalanche observations, and winter backcountry education.
Anchorage Avalanche Center vision: comprehensive avalanche information and education for backcountry recreation in Chugach State Park.
Learn more about the Anchorage Avalanche Center effort:
Piloting a backcountry avalanche advisory program for Alaska’s most readily accessible avalanche terrain: The Front Range and Eagle River area Chugach (eight page overview presented at the 2014 International Snow Science Workshop)
Piloting an avalanche advisory program for public recreation in the Front Range and Eagle River Area Chugach Mountains: Strategy, challenges, and viability (88 page full report)