The Forest Service Utah Avalanche Center will partner with Backcountry.com to develop a first-of-its-kind avalanche safety campaign specifically developed for and targeted to school-age children in Utah. Called “Know Before You Go”, the one hour education program will be taught in participating junior high and high schools in Utah as an annual assembly, to any gathering of young outdoor enthusiasts such as Boy Scout troops and to outdoor recreation programs at universities. As of early September, more than 30 area schools had expressed interest in the program.
The program has three parts: a 15-minute, narrated video showing avalanches, people triggering avalanches and the destructive power of avalanches; a local avalanche professional telling stories about close calls or accidents they have experienced ; and a 15 -minute PowerPoint presentation about the basics of how to recognize avalanche terrain, how to recognize obvious signs of instability, safe travel practices, an overview of avalanche rescue equipment and self-rescue procedures, and where to obtain information about current avalanche conditions.
“A critical need exists for basic avalanche education for junior high through college age students in Utah,” said Craig Gordon, an avalanche forecaster at the Utah Avalanche Center. “Just as students in Hawaii learn about the dangers of rip tides and shore breaks at an early age, students in Utah need to learn about avalanches. The rising numbers of young avalanche victims have demonstrated an obvious need for basic avalanche education.”
One and a half million Utah residents live immediately adjacent to some of the most dangerous and easily accessible avalanche terrain in the United States. Over the past eight years, nine young snowboarders have died in avalanches in Utah.
The most notorious event occurred on the day after Christmas in 2003. Fourteen people were recreating near Aspen Grove in the run-out zone of one of the largest avalanche paths in Utah during one of the most intense snowstorms Utah had experienced in several years. Three young snowboarders died in a massive avalanche.
“After last seasons disaster in Aspen Grove, it became clear that the backcountry was attracting a younger, less-savvy group of users,” said Dustin Robertson, Backcountry.coms marketing director. “It was also clear that a basic avalanche education could have prevented these deaths. It is our hope not only that this will save lives of children in Utah, but that the program can be modeled in other North American mountain communities as well.”
The program will be a turn-key operation through which local avalanche professionals such as ski patrollers, ski guides and avalanche educators give presentations.
The Know Before You Go avalanche education program is administered by the Friends of the Utah Avalanche Center, a non-profit, tax-exempt organization in which raises private funding for the Forest Service Utah Avalanche Center (FSUAC) and promotes avalanche safety in Utah. The staff of the FSUAC will design, create and supervise the project. The FSUAC staff is nationally recognized among the in avalanche education and for communication of critical avalanche information to the public.
