Be sure to avoid the threat of avalanches, just get rid of snow where avalanches are prone to occur. Maybe true, but avoiding it altogether is almost a viable option for those who are keen on cold weather activities such as skiing, sledding, and ice climbing. For them, good defense against avalanche trouble is preparedness, education, and information.
The Gallatin National Forest, located in southwestern Montana, is a popular recreational area throughout the country. Montana is located in Bozeman, the Gallatin National Forest Avalanche Center (GNFAC), which provides current avalanche, snowpack, and mountain weather information, as well as basic avalanche education, to recreational users in the area.
Max Staples has been with the GNFAC avalanche professional since 2007, earning a master's degree, snow and avalanche after studying engineering at Montana State University. Staples Three avalanche professionals operate GNFAC, covering an area of about 10,000 square kilometers, including the Bridger, Gallatin, Madison, and Washburn Mountains, the Lions Head area near West Yellowstone, and the mountains surrounding Cook city, a very popular snowmobile destination.
Staples said that at defined ski areas, ski patrols use dynamite to knock out avalanches before people go skiing. In the remote, high-altitude backcountry, however, users rely on their knowledge and skill to avoid, or survive, avalanches. And the stakes are high: a person becoming buried in an avalanche of snow will suffocate within 10 to 15 minutes if not rescued. Funded by the National Forest Service and additional funding from the nonprofit Friends of the Avalanche Center, GNFAC provides the information and education users need to be as safe as possible in the wild.
Bulletins are issued on a daily basis as snow conditions can effectively change within 24 hours. Meteorological data – especially snowfall, temperature (S-TMB-M002, S-TMB-M006, S-TMB-M017), wind speed – snow cover (S-WEST-B, S-WSB-M003) (DS RS2) The importance of the conditions is self-evident. Winds carry snow from the other side of the ridge and deposits, adding weight and pressure to the snowpack, bringing it closer to the point of breakthrough, Staples said. And temperature comes into play, it affects through stronger or weaker snowpack.
Until recently, the GNFAC relied primarily on wind speed data from local ski area weather stations to evaluate its daily bulletins. In order to estimate wind speeds in remote high altitude areas, it is necessary to extrapolate these critical data over large areas from weather stations up to 70 miles away.
Two years ago, however, GNFAC began collecting weather data directly from Onset using research-grade HOBO® weather stations U30-NRC and RX3000 (RX3001-00-01, RX3002-00-01, RX3003-00-01) from Onset Sites in remote mountainous areas. This allows avalanche professionals to get more accurate and reliable information in the field, there is a gradual increase in the use of newer technology in gear and equipment and more people are getting into the backcountry, away from the ski area. Staples said HOBO's devices where they are, and his Avalanche Group is "empowering more and more information to enable people to make informed decisions."
HOBO Weather Station U30-ETH-000-05-S100, U30-ETH-000-10-S100, U30-ETH-VIA-05-S100, U30-ETH-VIA-10-S100, U30-GSM-000-05 -S100, U30-GSM-000-10-S100, U30-GSM-VIA-05-S100, U30-GSM-VIA-10-S100, U30-NRC-000-05-S100-000, U30-NRC - 000 -10-S100-000, U30-NRC- VIA-05-S100-000, U30-NRC-VIA-10-S100-000
U30-WIFI-000-05-S100, U30-WIFI-000-10-S100, U30-WIFI-VIA-05-S100, U30-WIFI-VIA-10-S100 are plug-and-play based "smart sensors" technology. This means that a staple on the stage is the ability to simply plug individual weather sensors into the station and the station immediately recognizes each one without complicated wiring, programming or calibration. The entire system, including the sensor, can run for a full year on as few as four AA batteries, eliminating the need for solar panels or large battery packs
So far, the GNFAC has deployed two HOBO weather stations RX3000 (RX3001-00-01, RX3002-00-01, RX3003-00-01) Staples began to familiarize himself with HOBO equipment while he was studying for a master's degree, he took Impresses with its high degree of user-friendliness. When it came time for GNFAC to buy some weather stations for remote locations, Staples said, “We needed something that was affordable and portable and easy to use and reliable.” He also mentioned, Since the data logger has such low power requirements, a set of AA batteries can last a full season – even in locations where the temperature is said to plummet to minus 20 to 40 degrees Celsius.
Data logging The weather station measures wind speed (S-WEST-B, S-WSB-M003) and temperature (S-TMB-M002, S-TMB-M006, S-TMB-M017) every 2 minutes, records data every hour, and provides Average temperature, average wind speed, maximum wind speed (or gust). Data collected by HOBO weather stations is provided to the public on the GNFAC website.
Two HOBO weather stations are deployed at the same site near the SNOTEL (Snow Telemetry) site, an automated system run by the National Resource Conservation Service. Weather stations, however, are located high on mountain ridges to record wind speed and temperature, while SNOTEL sites need to be located for less windy places to measure snowfall (DS RS2) and temperature data (S-TMB-M002, S-TMB-M006, S- TMB-M017) collection has. The GNFAC was able to use SNOTEL data, combined with mobile population data, and provide more accurate information for these areas than previous avalanches.
The first HOBO weather station deployed by GNFAC two years ago was located at 9,984 feet near the elevation of a town called Cooke, the destination of a bobsled in Yellowstone. Major reports say that in this area, there have been a large number of deaths over the past few years. Two weather stations were deployed this summer at an elevation of 9,900 feet in Hyalite Canyon, a popular national forest area in Montana, and a very popular ice climbing site. Until recent years, roads in this area were not plowed in winter. Right now, it's being cultivated, however, ice climbers can gain not only in the fall, but also in winter, when the threat of large avalanches increases with snowfall. In fact, last winter one of the world's most familiar ice climbers was swept away by an avalanche and died. Staples notes that the weather stations in Hyalite Canyon are located directly on some popular ice patches, and with the data stations available, users can opt-in based on avalanche hazard levels. He said the death of ice climbers last year "...is just the fact of driving home how important it is how much we need this data."
As part of their efforts to obtain more accurate and reliable weather information so that avalanche users can make better and safer decisions in remote wilderness areas, Staples and his colleagues at GNFAC plan to deploy additional HOBO weather stations. By checking the GNFAC daily advisory and following the basic safety rules noted on the site (travel with a partner; carry a beacon, probe, and shovel and know how to use them; and time when traveling in avalanche terrain), this is beyond doubt Injuries can be avoided and lives saved for anyone who can't resist the thrill of a winter adventure into the wild.
