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Feast or famine. Seems like that might be the best phrase to describe this winter so far. Yep - La Nina's been a bit moody this year. Seems like she celebrated Thanksgiving and MLK weekend (a bit belatedly) but has spent the rest of the winter in the Alps where they are having their best winter in 40 years. Might be a good year for you skiers to schedule your Haute Route trip!
All that being said, we've got a much healthier snowpack than the rest of the US, so we really can't complain. Conditions in most of the Rockies have been horrendous... not only is there no snow, but they have some persistent weak layers that are causing all kinds of problems with stability and prompted a post on TGR's blog calling this season the year of the avalanche. It's not a good year for a road trip to Colorado or Utah.
But don't give up hope. It's only mid-February, and the long range weather models are hinting at a cold, wet March. Remember last March...and April? They were huge!
The Friends of NWAC
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Vertfest 2012 is this Weekend!
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 Vertfest 2012 is this weekend at Alpental, and the forecast is looking great...cold snow!
We still have some room in most of the clinics on Sunday. These are a great opportunity for skiers and boarders of all levels to improve their skills in a variety of areas. Clinics include everything from beginning splitboarding and efficient backcountry techniques to more advanced steep skiing techniques, avalanche education topics and photography seminars. We'll also have a lot of demo gear to try out whether you are taking a clinic or not. Check out the Vertfest home page for a complete list.
And of course, the real fest will take place on Saturday with the Monika Johnson Memorial Rally, the biggest uphill/downhill race in the Northwest! Following the race, we will be celebrating at the base area with live music by Daydream Vacation and Head Like a Kite, a huge raffle, and of course the awards ceremony. Don't miss this year's mid-winter backcountry party and fundraiser for NWAC!
For more details checkout the official Vertfest webpage and stay up-to-date at the Vertfest Facebook page
To purchase tickets, click here.
Thanks to Outdoor Research for once again leading the charge to pull this event together as a benefit of FOAC!
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New GIS Display of Avalanche Forecast
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 As you may well have seen by now, we launched a new GIS display of the avalanche forecast last week! We started this project last spring when we were approached by professor Michael Medler and graduate student Ben Kane in the Geography Department at Western Washington University. They came to us with the idea of developing a GIS based program that would automatically display the avalanche hazard on a map of the NWAC forecast area. FOAC agreed to fund the project, and 9 months later, we are live.
While we are excited about this new functionality, which we hope will help with your trip planning, it does not come without a little bit of concern. Like all avalanche forecasts, NWAC's forecast is regional in scale. NWAC forecasters collect all of the information they have available and do their best to make a prediction about the avalanche hazard in each of the 13 regions that you see on the NWAC home page. NWAC does NOT pretend to forecast on a slope specific scale. Only you can assess the specific slope that you are concerned about. For that reason, the hazard only displays on the GIS map up to a certain level of detail. When you zoom in beyond that detail, the hazard colors disappear. This is intentional, as the pop-ups on the map explain.
We hope that you will find this new and different visual display of avalanche danger and avalanche danger trends useful, and we welcome your feedback on it! In the mean time, keep an eye on the website for some updates to the display that will make it even more helpful!
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Volunteer Spotlight
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 FOAC could not operate without the support of our great group of volunteers! From selling raffle tickets at SnowBash, to gatekeeping at Vertfest, to helping with registration at Snowball, volunteers are critical to the success of the Friends, and thus NWAC! While we are incredibly grateful for everyone who has volunteered in any capacity, there are a few folks who really stand out. Thus...our second volunteer spotlight...!
Patrick Shaw came to us when we put the word out that we needed some database help. Over a year later, he has completed the successful migration of all of our contact data into a cloud based Salesforce database. It's been an incredible amount of work not only designing the database and importing years of data from countless Excel spreadsheets, but also working with a bunch of luddites at FOAC who thought "the cloud" was something that produced snow.
Patrick spent the first part of his career working in the nonprofit sector (working with young people, adults with developmental disabilities, at a theater company and at a nonprofit technology firm). He now works for a small consulting firm, providing technical know-how and strategy about websites, databases, and social media. The weirdest thing is that he doesn't even ski or ride! He just likes to help out a good cause once in a while. Thanks Patrick!
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Join us for the 4th Annual Snowball
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 It must be mid-winter, because planning for this year's Snowball Dinner and Auction is well underway. We hope you will join us for the fourth annual end-of-the-season celebration that has become our biggest fundraiser of the year and a crucial part of our ability to support NWAC and provide free avalanche education.
This year's Snowball will take place at the Mountaineers in Seattle on Friday, April 20. We are excited to be working with the Mountaineers, an organization which has been very supportive of FOAC and NWAC and whose members are some of our core constituents.
As anyone who has attended previous Snowballs knows, we'll be serving a great dinner and auctioning more gear, trips, etc than we know what to do with! Speaking of which...if you have anything you'd like to donate to this year's auction, don't be shy! Vacation homes, your professional services, that fruitcake you got for Christmas...it all helps! Just drop us a line at friends@nwac.us.
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Does Your Car sport a Ski and Ride License plate?
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 You have probably seen the Washington State Ski and Ride license plates on the road. But did you know that a portion of the proceeds from these plates benefit NWAC? Proceeds from the sale of the plates go to the Northwest Winter Sports Foundation, a great organization which supports educational initiatives that relate to winter sports and programs that get youth out in the snow. NWAC has been a beneficiary of these grants for several years.
The plates don't cost much and you can personalize your plate as well! So show your support for NWAC and winter sports in the Northwest and consider buying your Ski and Ride Plate when you renew your tabs this year!
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Education Corner
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 Our December update presented an article about decision making in avalanche terrain, which we hope you found useful. Continuing with that theme, we encourage you to check out the following good resources...
Folks from AIARE present a good video on trip planning and the process they go through in making the decision of where to ski...beginning at home in front of the computer right on through to standing at the top of a suspect slope. Bruce Tremper, director of the Utah Avalanche Center gives a good Powerpoint presentation on assessing hazard as it relates to consequences when dealing with persistent weak layer instability. These are both very informative presentations. Take a look! |
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The Friends of NWAC
Got a friend who would like to receive updates on NWAC? Help us get the word out by forwarding this e-mail below.
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