EFFORTS SNOWBALL
State avalanche info center makes strides in many areas
The Colorado Avalanche Information Center is ramping up for winter with a revamped website, a new forecasting programand a renewed vigor for fundraising.
The Friends of the Colorado Avalanche Information Center organization has its first paid staff member — and Aaron Carlson is aiming high, hoping to reach a fundraising record through a host of events and educational programs this winter.
“My goal is to see CAIC fully funded through the state, (the Colorado Department of Transportation) and Friends of the CAIC,” Carlson said. “That way, we can keep forecasters away from fundraising and keep them focused on forecasting and avalanche education for backcountry users.”
The country’s oldest public avalanche-forecasting program relies heavily on its friends, with film showings, auctions, benefits and — new this year — custom Liberty skis raising money to support additional avalanche forecasters delivering localized reports on avalanche conditions across the state.
“They really are becoming more critical,” said CAIC director Ethan Greene, who calls the friends group “a partner in our outreach and public education.”
Roughly half of the center’s $850,000 annual budget comes from CDOT, which relies on CAIC research and forecasts to help direct its avalanche-control program on 278 of 522 known avalanche paths that threaten the state’s roads inwinter. Another quarter of the center’s budget comes from the state’s severance-tax fund, which helps support the Boulder-based center’s 10 satellite offices and 15 seasonal forecasters.
Greene said the trend toward public-private partnerships has allowed the center to be run as a sort of co-op among CDOT, the Department of Natural Resources and Friends of the CAIC.
The donations gathered by the nonprofit friends group support the most public work of backcountry forecasting, which involves charting an average of nearly 2,500 avalanches around the state every year and issuing daily reports on avalanche conditions.
The Friends of the CAIC are hosting their sixth annual Benefit Bash onNov. 9 at Breckenridge’s Riverwalk Center. When Carlson first threw the bash – after learning the center was facing a $25,000 budget shortfall in 2008 — it earned $26,000. Last year, the benefit drew 1,250 people, who bid on public- and silent-auction items, and brought in more than $80,000 for the center.
The cash, while crucial, is only part of the benefit from the center’s supporters, Greene said. Events such as Thursday’s Telluride Mountainfilm in Denver showing at the Oriental Theater “help build a community and get people involved in avalanche safety,” Greene said.
The CAIC’s forecasting tools are getting an overhaul this year, with a newwebsite rolling out in earlyNovember offering news afety explanations and providing information for a variety of users, including third-party app makers such as Backcountry Access that can incorporate and distribute the center’s avalanche-safety forecasts.