Project Avalanche:
How can avalanche safety teams save more lives after an avalanche event?
What does it take to survive an avalanche? How can ski resorts like Purgatory save more skiers? How do you decide who to save first in a rescue situation? Who pays for avalanche prevention? These are among the many driving questions that students tackle as part of the cross-discipline project during Powder Term known as “Project Avalanche”.
What does Project Avalanche look like for Powder Term Students?
Project Avalanche starts with students being asked to feel the snow and note their observations.
Then, Powder Term’s 6th-8th graders spend the rest of the morning seeing first-hand snow conditions that impact avalanche phenomena as they are guided through the physical signs that cause risk.
How Can the Avalanche Safety Community Save More Lives?
For the next 2 weeks, Powder Term students will try to improve avalanche safety by experiencing first-hand what it is like to be buried alive in an avalanche training scenario, then learn to use the equipment needed for search and rescue and compete in locate and dig out races while practicing the leadership skills needed to organize a team in an emergency. All along the way learning the physics of staying alive and tackling questions like: “How much is a life worth?” and “Who pays for avalanche prevention?” and working through who to save first dilemmas.
Powder Term students will design an avalanche safety prototype (equipment, protocol, or training) and write an avalanche policy recommendation to present to the Avalanche Safety Professionals and response team members.
