Volunteers promote avalanche awareness

IDAHO FALLS, (KIFI/KIDK) - Volunteers with the Bonneville County Sheriff's Office, Caribou Targhee National Forest, and Bonneville Search and Rescue helped post "Know the Snow" warning signs in the Palisades area this week.

The effort was in support of the Adam Andersen Avalanche Project.   

The project was created to remind people venturing into avalanche terrain to pause, check forecasts, and check their safety gear before heading out.

Through the project riders in Island Park and Idaho Falls can rent safety gear that would normally cost over a thousand dollars to purchase, for free, at High Mountain Adventure and Action Motor Sports.

“I hope it keeps riders a little more aware so that they’re safe when they go out. We want everyone to come home again another day and to be able to ride another day. You know after what my family’s gone through, I really hate to see on the news when there’s another fatality, so it’s just my hope that this can make a small difference,” said project manager and wife, Summer Andersen.

The effort was established by Summer Andersen, whose husband was killed in an avalanche in the Mount Jefferson area in January 2018.

The project is also offering two scholarships for people to take an avalanche safety course.

You can learn more about the project here.