In Search of Project Zero

By Eugene Buchanan

Avalanche education is growing, despite a shift away from group efforts.

You may have noticed a dearth of discussion about avalanche safety at Outdoor Retailer Snow Show. There were no panels, seminars or other education outreach on a subject that should begin every conversation about backcountry skiing and snowboarding. That doesn’t mean avalanche education is not important to the industry, or not happening. Au contraire. It’s just that the collective effort to do so has been replaced by individual efforts from safety product companies, associations, and avalanche centers, all of whom share the same educational goal.

About four years ago, Snowsports Industries America (SIA) and the American Institute for Avalanche Research and Education (AIARE) helped instigate a Backcountry Task Force of brands, associations, retailers, and other partners to promote avalanche education called “Project Zero.” Its mission was to try and eliminate avalanche fatalities in the backcountry. It was a noble effort, and some good came out of it, but like individual snowflakes not bonding it never resulted in a long-lasting, cohesive effort; and the momentum has sloughed off.

“It got everybody speaking the same language in spreading the message, which was super important,” says Mike Hattrup, an original member of the task force who’s now with Fischer. “Early avalanche education was pretty fractured, with people from different areas espousing different things, so it was hard to transfer that knowledge and information. Backcountry was becoming a growing part of the sport, and we were collectively trying to help educate the consumer.”

But the program never got too far off the ground. “It was a good group with good ideas and was making some progress, but there just wasn’t the funding to activate our ideas,” Hattrup says.

Bruce Edgerly, co-founder of backcountry Access, agrees. “The messaging never really happened,” he says. “But some things did come out of it. The biggest deliverable was the group agreeing on the basic tenets of the ‘Know Before You Go’ program.” Another result, he adds, was learning that kids listen to “peer ambassadors” more than educators. This led to BCA growing its ambassador program.

Backcountry Access, which has long promoted its Beacon Basin program with resorts, went on to launch its Backcountry Basics video series. This year, it upped the ante with its “Safe Shredding” series and Send and Return education programs.

“We used to partner with film companies to get safety content included, but it never worked that well so we’re now making our own videos showing our team freeriders doing their ‘homework’ before hitting their lines. It combines safety with great, rowdy footage,” says Edgerly.

Companies like Mammut and Ortovox are also stepping up to the plate with safety messaging. Ortovox’s Safety Academy Lab on its website teaches everything from avalanche safety to how to build a snow cave and helicopter landing zone. “Our challenge,” says U.S. brand manager Tom Mason, “is making people aware of it and being consistent with our messaging.” And the splintering of messaging, he adds, makes it tougher, especially since they’re a European company. “The safety assets we’re producing are European,” he says, “and that’s not always relatable to the U.S. market.”

For its part, fellow European safety company Mammut has focused more on on-the-snow education. “Our efforts are mostly designed to encourage user awareness globally,” says hardgoods category manager Dave Furman, adding they employ a grassroots approach by supporting events and educational organizations. “We try to help educators get connected with our company.”

One effort they’ve done is print a safety checklist on all their ski packs reinforcing educational reminders. “It’s all heuristic stuff, but at least it helps get the message across,” he says.

Still, he admits there are hurdles to spreading the safety word on a larger scale. For one, language barriers, can create a web platform that’s just too robust and confusing, with too much information. “It’s like herding cats to some degree, with all the different messaging and standardizations across the world,” he says. “It’s a really cool effort, but the application is hard—especially when you have all these competing companies with philosophical differences that are all valid, but all different. It’s a bit of a quandary trying to standardize a technical message.”

So that’s leaving it in the hands of all the separate stakeholders. “Now it’s left up to the individual avalanche centers and Mammut’s and BCAs of the world to get the word out,” says Hattrup, adding that organizations like AIARE, American Avalanche Institute (AAI), American Mountain Guides Association (AMGA) are all ramping up their education programs. Not to mention resorts such as Colorado’s Arapahoe Basin, which holds an annual “Beacon Bowl,” where patrollers showcase backcountry safety and beacon skills. “This seems like the most organic way for it to happen. Fortunately, everyone shares the same goal and there are a lot of great resources out there.”