As more and more snowmobilers are finding their way into avalanche terrain, manufacturers are stepping up to make sure their customers know how to stay safe and make good decisions. Ski-Doo has created a series of videos that offer users free avalanche awareness lessons on topics ranging from avalanche transceiver use and rescue to safe travel protocols to terrain management. These information packed videos are a great place to start your avalanche education or brush up on your skills. Visit Ski-Doo to watch the videos and enhance your avalanche knowledge.

The second episode is a conversation on risk, public safety messaging, and resilience—not with an avy pro, but with Utah state epidemiologist Dr. Angela Dunn. Dr. Dunn has been at the forefront with the fight against Covid-19 in Utah and knows a bit about the bottom line, vulnerability, and exposure. Dr. Angela Dunn is the State Epidemiologist for the Utah Department of Health (UDOH) where she works across the Department to identify and address health concerns of Utahns, with a focus on health equity and data modernization. She came to UDOH as an Epidemic Intelligence …

Our Week in Review highlights significant snowfall, weather, and avalanche events of the previous week. (Review the archived forecasts for the Salt Lake mountains.) The danger roses for the Salt Lake mountains from Friday, December, 11 through Thursday, December 17: Early Season Summary: Storms in early and mid-November provided snowpack depths up to 18-24", and a couple of strong wind events from the west and southwest in the middle of November left a strong and dense wind slab on many north and east aspects, providing a structure of supportable snow. However, cold …

A standard practice that often gets lost in avalanche education is to not wear wrist straps on ski poles when riding in avalanche terrain. It's not an intentional omission, but there is just so much to learn and only so much students can absorb in a course. The reason not to wear pole straps is that if you're caught in an avalanche, the snow will pull on your poles and pull your arms away from your body. They can also drag you deeper into the debris. Skis or snowboards will do the same thing. They are almost like a boat anchor. You want to be able to let go of your poles and have …

Guest post by Russ Costa, PhD, Westminster College I’m tired. I’m tired at the end of a long semester, and tired of having to re-learn how to do everything in new ways. I’m tired after nine months of managing unexpected new demands and stresses placed on my own health and safety, as well as on that of my students, colleagues, family, friends, and neighbors. Oddly, I’m tired from spending more time sitting and staring at laptop screens as opposed to working on my feet. But I’m not fatigued like I often am after a long ski tour or a bicycle ride. I’m mentally fatigued from …

This season you’ll get a chance to test your forecast understanding and help us gauge the effectiveness of the avalanche information we’ve provided. Every week or so, we’ll create a quick quiz for you to take to measure your interpretation of the forecast. By taking this quiz, you can do two important things, improve your ability to get the essential information from an avalanche forecast and help us improve our forecasts. Every week or two, we will include a link to a quiz on a forecast for one region for that day. The quiz will take a few minutes and the link will be live …