Central Sierra Nevada

Pre Season

We have begun the process of getting the SAC forecasting program up and running after a long summer's rest. It's continuing education and gear maintenance time.

There are some excellent online education opportunities available right now. A great place to start for a basic avalanche knowledge refresher or for the new user is the education section on avalanche.org. The California Avalanche Workshop went virtual this year with several great recorded talks available, targeted at a wide audience. For the user with a much greater technical understanding of snow and avalanches, sign up to watch the recorded presentations from the Virtual Snow Science Workshop (VSSW) and the Colorado Snow Avalanche Workshop (CSAW), both of which occurred earlier in October. These two more technical workshops are worth the small ticket price for the more highly avalanche educated user.

The SAC non-profit side of the program is working to adapt education events appropriately for the current times. SAC's schedule of Motorized Rescue, Level 1, and Level 2 courses is posted with info available here. The application process for avalanche course scholarships is open now through Nov 18th. More info on SAC's scholarships for both recreationists and professionals is listed here.

Work is ongoing restarting SAC field data collection and forecasting operations for this winter. Forest Service forecasters are getting back to work, demothballing the program and getting systems and gear ready for the season. Once the snow flies, forecasters and pro observers will be ready to start the season long process of daily snowpack monitoring and forecasting.

Excitement is building for the upcoming season. We are prepping our equipment including first aid and survival/bivy kits. Prep your gear and refresh your avalanche education. Then sit back, enjoy fall, and wait for the snowpack to build.