With more people being drawn to Colorado’s backcountry for winter adventure, the risk of triggering avalanches increases with every powder turn. Avalanches kill more people each year than any other natural disaster in the state, according to the Colorado Avalanche Information Center.
Two Durango families lost loved ones to avalanches in 2013, and the owners of Pine Needle Mountaineering want to do something to stop that from happening.
“We had this idea,” Miles Venzara, who co-owns the gear shop with Jeremy Dakan. “Let’s start a scholarship. We’ll use the money to send kids to avalanche school.”
Although it’s still in the early stages of development, Venzara said they’ve started to raise money for what will be the Peter Carver/Joe Philpott Avalanche School Scholarship. Carver was killed near Silverton last February and Philpott near Fort Collins just a month later to the day.
Today from 5 to 8 p.m., in conjunction with a post-race party at Carver Brewing Co. for the Hesperus/Pine Needle Uphill Ski Club, which also is donating a portion of its proceeds, 15 percent of all sales in the restaurant’s back bar will go toward the scholarship fund.
“It’s kind of two-fold,” said Venzara, who is promoting “skimo” racing as a sport. “We do a lot of our training in the backcountry, so the sport coincides with avalanche awareness. It brings them together.”
He said avalanche training and education is critical for empowering people to make good decisions in the mountains.
Formal, hands-on training in safety, interpreting snow conditions and rescue typically costs about $350 to $450 – and that’s just for the basics.
“Obviously accidents happen, even with the most educated,” he said.
Colorado accounts for one-third of the country’s avalanche fatalities, according to the CAIC. In 2013, there were 11 deaths in the state.
“Avalanches are for real,” Dakan said. “That’s exactly what we’re trying to start with this scholarship. And we’re getting the (avalanche) schools involved.”
Andrew Klotz, who wrote Cold Smoke, a book on backcountry skiing in the San Juan Mountains, is no stranger to unstable snow conditions. Certified by the American Mountain Guide Association, he’s an instructor for the American Institute of Avalanche Research and Education and said the issue with Colorado’s abundant snow is that it is difficult to evaluate.
“In the San Juans, we’ve got world-class skiing,” he said. “You’ve got (skiers) looking at incredible lines, you’ve got kids that can ski them. (They) have the skills to do it and the equipment to get there, but they’ve got to deal with this one problem – a pretty difficult snowpack.”
Klotz called that a dangerous combination. “It’s those things together that have contributed to tragedies,” he said.
“The most important skill is not getting into avalanches in the first place,” he said.
bmathis@durangoherald.com
If you go
A fundraiser for the Peter Carver/Joe Philpott Avalanche School Scholarships fund, set up to help local youths afford avalanche safety classes, will be held from 5 to 8 p.m. today at Carver Brewing Co., 1022 Main Ave.
