The Adirondack Community Avalanche Project: Managing Risk by Building Community
By Nate Trachte, FOW
Ron "Ron Kon" Konowitz during the early days of tele skiing in the High Peaks. Adirondack Range, NY.
Backcountry skiing and riding in the Adirondacks is a tight-knit, community-based affair. We stand on the shoulders of a handful of renegades from the previous generation, many of whom are still active, who descended our obscure ski lines for the first time on telemark gear in the 1970’s. We take our lead from the infamous Adirondack “Ski to Die Club” of that time, who scoured obscure drainages in the High Peaks Wilderness in search of powder with no established beta. Among that crew are folks like “Ron Kon,” who went on to become the first person to ski all 46 High Peaks, the New York mountains over 4000 feet in elevation.
But skiing in the Adirondacks began a few years earlier. Designated for conservation purposes in 1892, the six million acre Adirondack Park in upstate New York is a patchwork of public and private land with more than a century's worth of winter recreation history. Much of the credit for bringing modern leisure skiing to the Adirondacks has to go to Herman “Jackrabbit” Smith-Johannsen. He was skiing 30 miles from Lake Placid to the summit of Mt. Marcy and back in a single day in the early 1900s. Skiing here usually includes long steep hiking trail approaches, densely vegetated drainages, and a few open slide paths that almost always require a good bushwhack. You’re forgiven if a ski trip to the ‘Dacks isn’t high up on your bucket list, but those of us who ski here now are fiercely passionate about this place.
Adirondack Range, NY. FOW: Nate Trachte // Photo: Nick Zachara (@niklas_zach)
The community is growing, but it is still dominated by a small local crowd. If we see another group on the skin track, more than likely we know at least one person in the group. Because of the lack of formal resources, backcountry skiing here has grown from a spirit of mentorship and sharing beta. The closest thing we have to a guide book is a collection of aerial photos of the Adirondack High Peaks region titled, The Adirondack Slide Guide, by Drew Haas. Less of a guide book and more of a picture book, Haas includes no descriptions, no approach information, no mileage, just photos taken from a plane and the name of the slide path and mountain. There is no avalanche forecast for the region.
So, fellow Friend of WNDR Caitlin Kelly and I founded the Adirondack Community Avalanche Project in January of 2022 to address inadequate access to avalanche education opportunities and provide a place to share observations. The goal of the project is to increase awareness of avalanche hazards in the Adirondacks and share snowpack, avalanche, and weather observations.
Mt Washington, NH. FOW: Nate Trachte and Caitlin Kelly // Photo: Zach McCarthy (@zmcart)
Nate Trachte in a pit on Wright Peak. Adirondack Range, NY. Photo: Caitlin Kelly (@catilinelizabethk)
We are encouraging folks to incorporate regular submissions and reviews of observations into their backcountry routine, and local feedback has given us a genuine sense that we are on the right track. We have heard countless times how vital this platform is and that what we are doing is long overdue.
Unfortunately there are some lingering misconceptions about avalanches in the High Peaks—that they either don’t happen, or they happen so infrequently that we need not worry about them. Those of us with the privilege of some avalanche education 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 heading out into the High Peaks—instances of human-triggered avalanches have predictably followed. In fact, within the first month of launching the Adirondack Community Avalanche Project, we received three confirmed reports of skier-triggered avalanches with the destructive potential to bury, injure, or kill a person.
Dry slab triggered by a ski cut on Mt. Colden, submitted with an observation to adkavy.org, February 2022.
In February of 2022, two skiers were caught and buried in an avalanche on Wright Peak. During this incident one skier was able to dig themselves out of their partial burial, then locate and dig out their fully buried partner, resulting in what was likely the first avalanche “save” in the history of backcountry skiing on the east coast of the United States (full report on this incident available on our website).
Worse yet, although not officially confirmed, it seems possible that we had our first avalanche fatality since 2000 last season. In March 2022, a solo climber was found deceased in the Trap Dike on Mt. Colden under four feet of snow and reportedly in a position consistent with avalanche fatalities.
Successful full burial rescue on Wright Peak, February 2022. Adirondack Range, NY.
Nate Trachte and Alex Madden digging a pit. Adirondack Range, NY.
We believe that with better access to avalanche education and a more prevalent conversation around snow safety we can prevent or at least mitigate potential incidents. More work is needed: we plan to roll out a new website this year with an improved user interface and observation submission process. And thanks in part to a grant from the Adirondack Community Recreation Alliance and the Northern Forest Center, we’re coordinating two events to raise awareness of avalanche hazards in the High Peaks and give folks an opportunity to improve their safety skills, starting with a free early season Avalanche Awareness presentation from an experienced avalanche educator this December in Lake Placid.
We hope that the Adirondack Community Avalanche Project will create a more open and accessible conversation about avalanche hazards in the High Peaks. We will continue to build partnerships with like-minded organizations, agencies, and people—together we can grow an informed backcountry community prepared to manage hazards in the mountains and help each other.
Adirondack Range, NY. FOW: Nate Trachte // Photo: Nick Zachara (@niklas_zach)
Avalanche awareness is always a community effort. If you're a Dack’s diehard or planning an Adirondack adventure, get involved below: