When you’re in avalanche terrain in the dead of winter, caution is of paramount importance. One wrong move and everything could slide downhill in an instant. And the sad truth is that if you’re unlucky enough to be buried, you’ve got no more than 15 minutes of oxygen before rescue attempts may be too late. [...]

When pro skier Owen Leeper strapped on a helmet cam near Jackson, Wyoming, last month, he expected to catch some sick footage of himself skiing a steep couloir. He didn’t expect to capture one of the most harrowing scenes of his skiing career.  When Leeper approached the couloir on Feb. 11, he was feeling confident. [...]

Just last week, two backcountry tourers narrowly escaped an avalanche on Mt. Washington. A few days later, a 46-year-old skier was killed by an avalanche in Deschutes County, Oregon. His death brought this season’s avalanche fatality count to 14, shocking the local community and leaving many to wonder: Are deadly avalanches are getting more frequent? [...]

Last week, a hiker on New Hampshire’s Mount Washington managed to film the terrifying moment in which a snowboarder and skier were nearly engulfed by an avalanche.  The hiker, RJ Phipps, was walking along Mount Washington’s Tuckerman Ravine on February 25, 2023. He had just lifted his camera to capture some photos of the scenery [...]

Last February, Leland Nisky, a professional climbing guide, was nearing the top of The Ribbon, a 600-foot ice climb in Ouray, Colorado. As he swung an ax into the ice near the top of the climb, a massive slough avalanche came surging out of nowhere, swamping him in a deluge of snow. One minute he [...]

Every January, ski patrol teams from across the country gather in Utah to train their secret weapons: avalanche dogs. And there’s no better place to train than at an elite academy known as the Wasatch Backcountry Rescue International Dog School.  Equipped with world-class sniffers and the ability to dig fast—even through hard-packed snow—dogs are rapidly [...]

This weekend, a series of avalanches rocked popular ski areas across Europe, resulting in 11 deaths. Authorities say the slides were caused by a combination of intense wind and heavy precipitation, which loaded many of the Alps’ steeper slopes with heavy slabs of snow. When hordes of skiers hit the backcountry this weekend—a school break [...]

On January 19, 2023, two skiers got caught in an avalanche just outside Heavenly Mountain Resort’s ski area boundaries. Both survived.  According to the Sierra Avalanche Center (SAC), the avalanche forecast that day was “considerable,” a designation that indicates significant avalanche danger in backcountry terrain. That’s mostly owing to the recent storm cycle, which deposited [...]

Winter is exhilarating climbing, ski and snowboard season, but it’s also avalanche season—that time of year when layers of accumulating snow are more likely to collapse and slide downhill in a rush of icy terror.  This avalanche season has played out as if it’s on steroids; because it has been one of the most intense [...]