Local woman raising avalanche awareness in husbands honor

Winter recreation is fun, but it comes with some dangers. Summer Andersen’s husband Adam died after getting caught in an avalanche back in January.

She says she wants to take this tragedy and work to prevent it from happening to anyone else.

“He was amazing and I want to make sure everyone comes home safe from riding after this. I want to make sure every rider gets home safe to their family,” says Summer Andersen.

Summer’s husband, Adam, went out to island park to snowmobile with some friends. She was unable to get in touch with him.

“I saw it on Facebook first that there had been a snowmobiler caught in an avalanche in the area. And I knew that was a popular spot for him and his friends to go. I tried to get a hold of him, I couldn’t get a hold of him, called and called and called and one of his friends finally called and said it was Adam,” says Andersen.

A loss that has been hard on her and their family.

“It’s been really hard, I’ve got these three amazing beautiful children and Adam was the world’s best dad, he was truly an incredible father. And to see them without their dad and me without my partner, it’s just been excruciating.”

But she wants to use her tragic experience to make a difference.

“I want to do everything I can to make sure every person makes it home to their family. Every single rider needs to make it home to their family because what happened to my family is a tragedy and it could be prevented and I want to do everything I possibly can that at least one person makes it back that wouldn’t have otherwise.”

Summer has teamed up with Action Motor Sports to hold an awareness event in Adam’s honor. The “Adam Andersen Avalanche Awareness Benefit” will be at Action Motor Sports on February 24th. All of the proceeds will be used to purchase avalanche gear to loan to riders for free. Summer says she wants to make sure all riders have the equipment they need.