Local experts advise mountain goers of avalanche warnings

An avalanche warning has been issued for areas of the back country. This is because of new snow over the past few days have overloaded weak layers in the snow pack, according to the National Weather Service.

Local mountains like Teton Mountain area, Togwotee Mountain Pass and Grey’s River are under considerable avalanche warnings, according to Bridger Teton Avalanche Center.

Avalanche warning areas in high danger are: The Medicine Bow Mountains, Never Summer Mountains, Front Range, Pikes Peak, Williams Fork, Ten Mile Range Gore Range and Mountains around Vail. These stretch from Colorado to southern Wyoming.

Avalanche danger is high near and above tree lines.

So how can you protect yourself in this kind of warning? A few experts, including one at Idaho Mountain Trading explain how to be safe while traveling on the hills.

It is common for avalanche warnings around this time of year. The weather changes and we get a bit of rain here and there that creates instability among the mountains.

Commander Justin Liebert, who’s with Search and Rescue in Fremont County, said as soon as dispatch gets a call about someone needing rescue in the snow, the process begins on how to locate the person and where the safest place is for the crews to park.

On top of that they are generally 45-minutes out from the mountain area, he said.

“It’s always wise that everybody you go with has an understanding of how to use that equipment. Make sure that everybody’s always accountable for, if you’re going to go play on the hill, always know where you party is at,” Commander Liebert said.

Commander Liebert said getting stuck can happen to anyone, including people who are not there for the snow. Always prepare yourself for the worst, he said.

“Prepare for where you’re going. If you’re going to go in the back country, make sure you’ve got ways to start a fire, got plenty of water, you’ve got some energy bars that work really good, jerky; something to prepare yourself to be there overnight,” Commander Liebert said.

Davin Napeier, who is the manager at Idaho Mountain Trading, suggests four things for recovery mechanisms:

a probe an avalanche shovel a beacon a backpack of some sort

In the case that there is someone stuck, the avalanche beacon can save a person’s life, Napeier said.

“If someone gets caught in an avalanche, it’s always transceiving and the moment it does, we’ll pull this device on the back side and this allows for us to quickly search for the victim. It really points in the direction that you need to go and gives you an accuracy as far as how far away that person is,” Napeier said.

Napeier said safe zones are usually in 30-degree areas or lower.

“I want to put some emphasis on really doing the homework on how the snowfall has occurred over the last say week, or month or even several months for that matter,” Napeier said.

He also said it does not hurt to have an extra pair of anything; whether it be gloves, clothes or even an emergency space blanket because you never know what’s going to happen.