Or they could be transportation department employees in charge of avalanche clearing. This work requires physical strength. Avalanche technicians spend most of their time outside. They examine weather patterns, snowfall and wind conditions. And they actually dig in the snow to determine how solidly or loosely the snow is packed. Of course, since snow only lasts from November to April each year, even in higher elevations, most avalanche technicians hold different jobs from May through November.
During these off-season months, many technicians are employed in forestry services or as recreational guides for mountain climbing and hiking.
You must be very physically fit. People with handicaps can participate by doing weather studies and predictions. Or they could be analysts who draw conclusions from research done by others in the field. Every year the U.
Department of Labor conducts national surveys of wage data by occupation in every state and in all industry divisions. The statistics collected for one year are published the next fall. Avalanches contain three main features : the starting zone, the avalanche track, and the runout zone.
Avalanches launch from the starting zone. Once the avalanche starts to slide, it continues down the avalanche track, the natural path it follows downhill. The avalanche finally comes to a stop at the bottom of a slope, in the runout zone, where the snow and debris pile up.
Avalanches are most common during the winter, December to April in the Northern Hemisphere, but they do occur year-round. To get an avalanche, you need a surface bed of snow, a weaker layer that can collapse, and an overlaying snow slab. The highest risk period is during and immediately after a snow storm.
Underlying snowpack, overloaded by a quick deluge of snow, can cause a weak layer beneath the slab to fracture naturally. Human-triggered avalanches start when somebody walks or rides over a slab with an underlying weak layer.
The weak layer collapses, causing the overlaying mass of snow to fracture and start to slide. Earthquakes can also trigger strong avalanches.
By digging a snow pit or profile , scientists can look at the composition of different snow layers that formed during a season, sort of like looking at the layers of a cake. The size and shape of the snowflakes in each layer provide clues about the weather events that occurred: big dumps of snow, drought, rain, a hard freeze, or loose, powdery snow.
Larger, looser snow crystals are weaker , because there are fewer points they can touch to interact with the other snow layers. The interaction of the snow layers can help predict the chances of an avalanche. He emphasizes that conditions can change rapidly with the weather, and this can be deadly. Slopes shaded from direct sun stay cooler, preventing bonding between snow layers and leading to more avalanches in cold conditions.
Conversely, during the spring, sunny mountainsides have a higher risk for avalanches because of rapid warming and melting. Precipitation type and intensity, temperature, wind, slope steepness and orientation the direction it faces , terrain, vegetation, and general snowpack conditions can influence whether and how snow moves down a slope. Moving across the terrain, slight changes in slope or how the mountainside is oriented towards the sun can create drastically different conditions. The Forest Service runs 14 backcountry avalanche centers in the United States to provide information for people recreating in snowy wilderness areas.
Forecasters use four main elements to describe conditions, assign a danger level , and help recreators make the best decisions in the backcountry. Field teams at avalanche centers document the snowpack—the thickness and type of snow layers—and combine those data with weather conditions to estimate danger levels.
The forecasts take into account the potential type and size of an avalanche, the likelihood it will occur, and the location. Before entering the backcountry, check online forecasts for the danger level in that area. You have been logged out of the system due to inactivity.
Please login again. And if someone is thinking of pursuing it as a career, they probably need to rethink that. In terms of direct experience, you definitely want to get your Woofer [Wilderness First Responder certification] and your EMT, then maybe work on an ambulance and join a search-and-rescue team. People who learn about avalanches just by backcountry skiing spend all of their time avoiding avalanches. Whereas if you go out and do work in a snow safety program as a ski patroller, you spend your time attacking them.
Probably mostly no. Last question: Since travel is such a big part of your job, what do you actually do for vacation? But I also love loafing on the beach. Although this past spring, I had a couple of job offers for heli-ski guiding up in Alaska. I turned them down. I thought, You know what? It was sublime. Sign up for the Daily Wander newsletter for expert travel inspiration and tips. Read our privacy policy. AFAR Advisor. Beaches International Beaches Islands U. Beaches Water Sports. Cities We Love.
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