Join TCSAR and JH Sports for "Winter Welcome" on December 21

Ski season is finally here, and we hope you've been able to get out to enjoy the snow with friends and family. This Saturday, come help us celebrate the arrival of winter with JH Sports in Teton Village. "Winter Welcome" is a fun, all-ages party benefitting Teton County Search and Rescue.

The event starts at 3:30 p.m. in the Gabe Room, located on the third floor of the Bridger Center at the base of JHMR. This means that you can ski all day, and then come on upstairs for pizza from Pinky G's, beers from Snake River Brewing, and a raffle with $25,000 in prizes from more than 50 outdoor brands.

Raffle tickets cost just $5 and can be bought online, or by cash/card at JH Sports, Hole in the Wall Snowboard Shop, and the JH Resort store in downtown Jackson. Winners will be announced at 5:30 p.m. on Saturday, December 21. (You don't need to be present to win, but then you'd miss out on all the fun.) All proceeds go to TCSAR, which directly helps our all-volunteer team save lives in the Jackson Hole backcountry.

"This will be significant for TCSAR," says Larry Hartenstein, general manager for JH Sports. "It helps them pay for things like heli rescues and specialized equipment. We all want and need TCSAR to be ready!"

Winter Programming Heats Up

In TCSAR’s effort to be proactive in helping people make the best decisions in the backcountry, we’ve planned numerous winter programs to keep you ready when the time comes to do the right thing. If you do lunges for your quads, why wouldn’t you do an equivalent exercise for your brain? Below is a list of programs to put on your calendar to stay in the know. More info can be found on the events page at Backcountry Zero. And if you’re looking for a guide or pursuing formal avalanche education, check out our list of local resources.

• November 12: Backcountry Safety Bash, with the Young Professionals of the Tetons, at 5:30 p.m. at the Wort Hotel

• November 12: Women’s Avalanche Awareness Night, with SheJumps, at 6 p.m. at the TCSAR Hangar

• November 19: Youth What’s in Your Pack Class, a fun and informative FREE workshop for kids in grades 3-7, from 5:30-7:30 p.m. at the TCSAR Hangar. Register here.

• November 20: Deadline to apply for a mountain safety scholarship with the Jackson Hole Babe Force. Apply here.

• November 21: Youth What’s in Your Pack Class, a second FREE workshop for older kids in the 8-12 grades, from 5:30-7:30 p.m. at the TCSAR Hangar. Register here.

• December 3: Adult What’s in Your Pack Class, a fun and informative workshop discussing packing essentials, winter trip planning with Sarah Carpenter of AAI; how to address injuries and hypothermia; and winter fire building, from 5:30-7:30 p.m. at the TCSAR Hangar. Register here.

• December 5: 20th Annual Skinny Skis Avalanche Awareness Night, from 5-9 p.m. at the Center for the Arts. A fundraiser for TCSAR and the Bridger-Teton Avalanche Center, this annual event is the perfect night to get dialed for the winter. Keynote speaker Noah Howell is a lifelong backcountry skier and mountaineer who will share photos on a recent trip to climb and ski the daunting Mount Foraker in the Alaska Range. Pre-register here and get a free beer.

• December 11: State of the Snowpack, from 6:30-8 p.m. at Headwall Sports. This popular series is back for the 2019/20 season, featuring a new speaker every two weeks detailing what’s going on in our local snowpack.

• December 21: Winter Welcome at JH Sports. This fun event is a great opportunity donate to TCSAR and win some really cool prizes in one of the best raffles of the year.

• January 1: State of the Snowpack, from 6:30-8 p.m. at Headwall Sports.

• January 15: State of the Snowpack, from 6:30-8 p.m. at Headwall Sports.

• January 29: State of the Snowpack, from 6:30-8 p.m. at Headwall Sports.

• February 12: State of the Snowpack, from 6:30-8 p.m. at Headwall Sports.

Historic Avalanches, Stress Trauma, and Decision-Making all Highlighted at WYSAW

The Fifth Annual Wyoming Snow and Avalanche Workshop kicked off the winter season in Jackson Hole this past weekend. Featuring 12 guest speakers who spoke on a range of snowy topics, WYSAW drew a sold-out crowd of 500 people to the all-day event at the Center for the Arts.

Jamie Yount, the Winter Operations Manager for the Colorado Department of Transportation, kicked things off with a riveting account of last winter’s historic avalanche cycle in his state. For two weeks, enormous avalanches wreaked havoc on Colorado’s mountain highways, and Yount, a former longtime avalanche technician for the Wyoming Department of Transportation in Jackson, wowed the crowd with videos of historically destructive slides. Throughout Yount’s presentation, there were audible gasps among the audience as they watched slide after slide power down mountains and across highways, at times burying cars, breaking old-growth timber like toothpicks, and destroying structures.

For the entire season, Yount offered these stats:

• 1,547 explosive detonations

• 15,000 worker hours

• 855 artifically triggered avalanches, with 488 impacting highways

• 221 avalanche covered all lines of the road

• 47 avalanches classified as large or very large

• Red Mountain Pass (near Silverton) closed for 18 consecutive days

• 50 hours of road closures on I-70

You can find all presentations from the Fifth Annual WYSAW on the TCSAR Vimeo page. Below, Dave Richards, a longtime ski patroller and director of the Alta Ski Area Avalanche Office, talks about how first-responders may be affected by stress trauma. It was a deeply moving presentation. Mental health of first-responders is something that we here at TCSAR are taking head on. Thanks to Richards for removing the stigma of mental health and talking about the importance of getting help.

One of the most anticipated presentations was a panel discussion on Teton Pass. As growing backcountry use collides with increasing commuter traffic, the panel looked at how to preserve skier access while respecting commuter safety.

Thanks to everyone who came out to WYSAW, including our presenting sponsors Backcountry Zero, Teton County Search and Rescue, Central Wyoming College, and the Bridger-Teton Avalanche Center. Improving backcountry awareness, avalanche safety, and strengthening community bonds in mountain recreation remains the guiding principle behind the event. We’ll be back again in 2020.