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It's never too early to plan for avalanche safety |
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Sunday, November 27, 2011 15:55 |
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By LAUREN GLENDENNING, VAIL DAILY
VAIL — While huge storms haven't yet dumped massive amounts of avalanche-prone snow throughout the high country, now is the time to start thinking about backcountry avalanches and how to avoid them, and when necessary, survive them.
The avalanche danger in the area is rated as moderate, but don't let lower snowpack accumulations fool you into thinking terrain is slide-proof right now.
John Snook, an avalanche forecaster with the Colorado Avalanche Information Center, said a shallower snowpack can have more concerns than a deeper snowpack. The shallow snowpacks around Colorado right now are also creating concerns for future snowpacks, he said.
There are hard slabs that end up resting on weak snow bases — a bad combination, Snook said.
“People are still triggering slides out there,” Snook said, adding that there have been avalanches reported recently at Loveland Pass and the Ten Mile Range.
There are avalanche safety classes around the state, with tons of classes offered in December (a list is available at avalanche.state.co.us). The U.S. Forest Service has an informative website with basic avalanche information, too, at fsavalanche.org.
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