Curious about Northwest avalanche history?

I've been doing some research on Northwest avalanche history for a writing project. I've gathered information from several sources:

• NWAC.us website
• The Snowy Torrents (all 5 volumes, though 1987-95 isn't available yet)
• Seattle Times (1/1/1986 to 1/1/1997, to fill the gap in Snowy Torrents)
• Info from the Colorado Avalanche Info Center (CAIC), also to fill the Snowy Torrents gap
• An old NWAC database sent to me by Mark Moore

I've distilled this information into a table on my website:
www.alpenglow.org/ski-history/notes/web/www-nwac-us.html

Since I'm particularly interested in backcountry skiing and riding, I've used different colors to distinguish backcountry accidents from other kinds of accidents. The results are interesting to look at.

Note, for example the paucity of backcountry accidents before the mid-1980s. The 1990s also seem light, though I think my sources should cover that period pretty well.

Things pick up noticeably in the early 2000s, with a lot more backcountry accidents. By the late 2010s, backcountry skiing and riding accidents make up the majority of the reports.

It's also interesting to see how snowmobile accidents took off in the early 2000s, presumably due to more capable machines.

I'm continuing to noodle this stuff, but I'd be happy to get any additions, corrections, or other observations you might have. Plenty of food for thought...

Very cool, Lowell - thanks for sharing. Looking forward to the fruits of your writing project.

I would consider contacting Pascal Hagaeli at Simon Fraser University. He is our closest avalanche academic just over the border in Vancouver. You never know he may have a student working on such a project as we speak.

scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=...works&sortby=pubdate

Certainly many accidents go unreported if they don't result in a rescue. If you want to be able to truly compare the rate of being caught in an avalanche between disciplines I feel you would have to constrain what percentage of those accidents are actually reported. 

Not sure how you feel about it, but I consider British Columbia to be apart of the NW... Edit: I notice you don't consider BC as being apart of the NW (;, but perhaps the links below may still prove useful to you.

www.avalanche.ca/incidents

This is a good read
www.avalancheassociation.ca/store/ViewProduct.aspx?id=5143665

cdn.ymaws.com/www.avalancheassociation.c...ancheaccidentsv4.pdf

Skier of the Hood wrote: Not sure how you feel about it, but I consider British Columbia to be apart of the NW... Edit: I notice you don't consider BC as being apart of the NW (;, but perhaps the links below may still prove useful to you.

Thanks for your comments and suggestions.

For my project, I'm limiting my scope to essentially the NWAC forecasting and reporting region, from the Canadian border to Mt Hood. It's true that British Columbia can be considered a part of the NW geographically, but since it is a separate country, it's largely a separate community. My project is very much concerned with the community south of the border, and avalanche history is just a small part of my scope.

Lowell, do you consider Idaho as part of the NW for the purposes of your project?

mccallboater wrote: Lowell, do you consider Idaho as part of the NW for the purposes of your project?

No. Nothing east of Columbia River. Basically just the Cascades and Olympics.

Thanks, that is useful historical information.   Do you have any plans to add links to the table so inquiring minds may read what ever incident report information is available.

Randito wrote: Thanks, that is useful historical information.   Do you have any plans to add links to the table so inquiring minds may read what ever incident report information is available.

No plans for that. Just getting the raw statistical information was a chore. I got enough for my purposes so I've moved on to other things.