*COVID-19 Update*
People are still getting out into the backcountry, regardless of the COVID-19 public health crisis. After all, this is a free country (not an authoritarian one with rigidly enforced government mandates) and outdoor recreation is absolutely essential to holistic wellbeing. Outdoor exercise is one of the best ways to ensure your immune system remains as healthy and responsive as possible. Plus, it’s a great way to maintain sanity during this time of relative social isolation. Given encouragement from the State of Alaska to stay local, backcountry recreation in the greater Anchorage area is booming (especially in Chugach State Park). All considered, we think it’s more important than ever to provide the community with quality avalanche information to help with informed decision-making that facilitates safe and rewarding recreation in our local mountains for those that choose to go out. We are committed to providing weekend avalanche forecasts, and further updates as warranted by conditions, through April. Stay tuned to our website for the latest information. Please remember that this project has been a completely volunteer and grassroots effort since the 2012-13 snow season. It’s provided pro bono by an experienced local professional, with help from friends. While this project definitely needs considerable financial support in the future to establish a sustainable avalanche information program for the Western Chugach Mountains, we encourage you to direct any donations during this time of crisis to organizations supporting more critical needs related to the global pandemic. Best wishes for everyone’s spring! We hope you stay safe, healthy, and follow best practices recommended by the CDC and DHSS regarding COVID-19 mitigation.
The Anchorage Avalanche Center will again provide avalanche advisories (as warranted by conditions) and professional quality observations (as time permits the completely pro bono staff) for Chugach State Park beginning in February and ending sometime in April.
Anchorage Avalanche Center primary staff (Mat Brunton) spent November through January of the 2019-2020 snow season exploring the terrain, snowpacks, and avalanche information programs of Canada, Montana, Wyoming, and Utah. This outdoor education continuing professional development trip made something very clear: there are currently only two avalanche information paradigms for North America (Lower 48 and Canada), but we need a third (Alaskan).
The United States Forest Service (USFS) has defined the Lower 48 avalanche info paradigm, and it works well there, but it does not work in Alaska. There is only one USFS avalanche center in Alaska (Chugach National Forest Avalanche Information Center based in Girdwood), it provides information for a relatively tiny area, but has many times more funding than the other six (non-government) avalanche centers (Anchorage, Hatcher Pass, Valdez, Eastern Alaska Range, Haines, and Cordova) in the state combined. With drastically increasing snow-season backcountry recreation throughout the state (especially focused in Hatcher Pass, Chugach State Park, and the Valdez area), Alaska must develop a more efficient and effective paradigm for statewide avalanche information to better serve its citizens and visitors.
The USFS model works great for the broken up and small ranges of the Lower 48, but it has failed in Alaska (as evidenced by the well-funded USFS center’s inability to effectively assist with avalanche information programs elsewhere in the state, monopolizing Anchorage revenue streams for itself, and not even being able to maintain its own programs [i.e. Summit Lake advisory]).
Alaska would be better served by a model more comparable to the Canadian paradigm of regional avalanche forecasting, as our great state shares more similarities in this regard with the large and mountainous provinces of Yukon Territory, British Columbia, and Alberta than the western states relatively small and isolated ranges that function according to the USFS model.
Furthermore, the Chugach National Forest Avalanche Information Center (CNFAIC) in Girdwood only supports a public observations platform for Chugach State Park. Especially considering the CNFAIC staff’s lack of experience with Chugach State Park terrain and snowpack, and corresponding inability to effectively contextualize public observations, an observations-only program can be misleading and dangerous.
Chugach State Park needs a professional avalanche forecasting program. There is no comparable avalanche terrain in such close proximity to a large population of recreationists that lacks an avalanche forecasting program anywhere else in the developed world. Anchorage deserves better.
As you review historical information provided by the Anchorage Avalanche Center (via the “advisories” and “observations” tabs above), keep in mind that Mat’s minimalist and grassroots model for the Anchorage Avalanche Center could function sustainably with a seasonal budget that is about one third of a Park Ranger’s annual salary.
Advisories: avalanche danger updates and weekend avalanche outlooks for the Western Chugach (with an emphasis on the most popular winter recreation areas in Chugach State Park)
Observations: recreational conditions in the greater Anchorage area (focused on snowpack conditions in the Western Chugach but inclusive of trail, climbing, and riding conditions throughout Southcentral Alaska)
Education: statewide learning opportunities and online resources for getting “avy savvy”
Trip Reports: inspiration and stoke to contribute to Southcentral Alaska mountain culture
Gear Reviews: our favorite equipment that makes big days in wild Alaskan mountains possible
Anchorage Backcountry Center mission:
- Enhance the safety, awareness, and enjoyment of visitors to Anchorage’s backyard mountain playground (the Western Chugach Mountains), and other Southcentral AK backcountry venues.
- Promote public lands, sustainable outdoor recreation, ecological consciousness, and environmentally responsible behavior.
- Contribute to Alaskan backcountry/mountain culture.
Anchorage Backcountry Center vision:
- Comprehensive outdoor information and education for the Western Chugach Mountains.
- A Southcentral Alaska citizenry that recognizes the immeasurable value of its public land resources, engages in sustainable outdoor recreation for individual and collective wellness, works toward improved sustainability in all domains of life through environmentally responsible behavior, and possesses an imminently necessary ecological consciousness.
- An inclusive, supportive, and diverse 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!
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).