LOCALadk Magazine

LOCALadk 50 What is ADK Avy? The mission for The Adirondack Community Ava- lanche Project is to increase awareness of avalanche hazards in the Adirondacks, and to create a space to share snowpack, avalanche, and weather observations to help our community mitigate the risks of winter recreation. We created adkavy.org, a website where folks can submit their observations to be shared with the pub- lic, and an Instagram page @adkavy to help us spread the word about the project and share information more broadly. When we first launched in January 2022, we were blown away by the outright support from our community in the Adirondacks and throughout the east coast backcountry skiing and avalanche educa- tion community. Throughout the first couple months, it often felt like we were running to keep up with the project. We had constant zoom call appointments with news outlets, interested parties, avalanche profes- sionals, and potential collaborations. Our email inbox was full of questions and gratitude and folks asking how they could help. It could have been a full-time job. The project emerged from our assessment of inade- quate access to avalanche education opportunities and the absence of a place to share observations. We wanted to create a resource that backcountry skiers in the Adirondacks could look at before heading out for a ski tour. Because we don't have a forecasting service here, or an entity that is advertising the risk of avalanches in the area, we wanted to try and fill in some of those gaps. However, it is important to note that adkavy.org isn't a forecasting website—at this time, we do not have the education, skills, or funding to make some- thing like that happen. But just as you would check the weather before heading out for a backcountry ski tour or winter hike, our hope was that backcountry users would check recent observations and make their own judgment calls based on what other observations said. The disclaimer on our website states that we cannot vouch for the quality or accuracy of observations from the general public, and are in no way a complete representation of the avalanche hazards in the back- country. We do not edit observations or delete obser- vations. We made it very clear to our community that the success of the project relied on a steady stream of observations and the expertise already held within the community. During our first winter we saw 35 com- plete observations from 25 unique individuals. A response to reality Unfortunately there are some lingering misconcep- tions about avalanches in the High Peaks. We often hear that they either don't happen, or they happen so infrequently that we need not worry about them. For those of us that frequent avalanche terrain and have the privilege of having received some avalanche education, we know how dangerous this false sense of security can be. In recent years, New York State Forest Rangers have reported a rapid increase in backcountry skiers head- ing out into the High Peaks. With the increase of folks entering avalanche terrain, we might expect to see increased instances of human triggered avalanches. Within the first month of launching the Adirondack Community Avalanche Project, we received three con- Faceted snow crystals (above) are a key ingredient in the reci- pe for an avalanche. It takes training and careful observation to recognize subtle signs of danger. Nate Trachte Photo

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