Did you get the chance to read the backcountry skiing article in Your National Forests yet?  If you’re planning a trip into the backcountry, be sure to check avalanche conditions and learn proper backcountry winter travel techniques. Check out this short blog below from February 2011 on some very BASIC avalanche awareness techniques. We also encourage you to check out www.fsavalanche.org  for additional information and resources on avalanches. Have fun and be... (Read more…)

Earlier this month winter finally made an appearance for much of the Western half of the country. As beautiful as the snow is on the mountains, it can quickly turn deadly. Avalanches rage throughout the backcountry of mountains throughout the west. This week in Jackson Hole, Wyoming a skier triggered an avalanche down Taylor Mountain. Luckily, no one was injured.  In Colorado, however, skiers were not so lucky. On Sunday two avalanches claimed the lives of two skiers at Vail... (Read more…)

For most of June and July, national news outlets reported on the growing wildfires in Arizona. Each week, dry, hot winds increased the fires’ intensity and size, forcing residents to flee communities in the path of the blaze and decimating hundreds of thousands of forested acres. As the fires intensified, the NFF began receiving calls from residents and businesses who wanted to help. Our initial response was to simply respect the intensely hard work of firefighters and other Forest... (Read more…)

This past Saturday, two dangerous avalanches raced down mountainsides,  burying four skiers  on Alaska’s Chugach National Forest and one snowboarder on the Arapaho in Colorado.  Although none of the injuries suffered were life threatening, these events, along with the return of winter weather after a spring-like thaw, have avalanche watchers on alert. So, as avalanche warnings continue to go out across the West this week, it’s a perfect time to start a discussion about snow... (Read more…)