Enroll in The Snow Pool

A community based research project called The Snow Pool aims to make avalanche forecasters more aware of who uses their forecasting products and how they apply forecast’s information in the field.

This draft began as a public service announcement and quickly morphed into a few moments of self-reflection. Am I in need of some self-reflection? It depends on who you ask, and the answer likely stemming from the children and partner would be “yes.” 

Several months ago, the Colorado Avalanche Information Center (CAIC) and the Avalanche Research Program at Simon Fraser University announced a collaborative data-gathering initiative called The Snow Pool. (It appears Switzerland and Austria are also involved with the project. You can find links to those programs here.)

According to the CAIC site, the initiative will build “a community of backcountry users called The Snow Pool to provide feedback about how we share avalanche safety information.”

I rarely ski in Colorado these days. But the idea of an avalanche center getting a better grasp on how users use/digest forecasting products is a great one. I live in a region with a small/local forecasting center that provides observations from a few go-to locations. (They also provide a regional avalanche forecast.) Further, like most, if not all, forecast centers, the public can submit observations. As one can expect, public observations run the gamut from casual to professional in scope. 

I took the plunge this AM and signed up to be part of the Snow Pool. Again, this project, for the time being, is centered on Colorado, but the researchers (and CAIC) encourage folks who visit the state for backcountry endeavors to join.   

I found the questions asked during my Snow Pool enrollment spot on, as they made me do a meta-assessment of sorts: I began to think about how I’d like to think of my behavior in the backcountry and how I actually behave. (I suppose we’d have to gather my touring partners to get their take on that.) For that exercise alone, enrolling seems like a worthy use of folks’ time.

Practices in the field.

I’m particularly interested in the question asking about recording GPS tracks and if, in fact, users make them public. Although we are not diving into the issue here, we know there is a lively ongoing debate about gatekeeping—and public posting (or not posting) of location specific info seems to be part of the issue.

Desired backcountry experience.

Along the lines of sharing or not sharing information , I’m also super interested to see some survey results (not sure they will ever be made public) regarding the type of experience backcountry travelers look for. 

Again, you can enroll in The Snow Pool  at the CAIC site.