Avalanche Alliance is proud to announce $119,365 in funds are being granted to U.S. avalanche centers following this year’s successful sweepstakes. Fund usage ranges across 11 avalanche centers including increased avalanche monitoring and education, backcountry weather stations for forecasting, added forecasting personnel and expenses, trailhead avy education, safety equipment, and even a snowmobile for forecasting transportation purposes. Additional funds were donated by the Hunter Houle Foundation to build beacon check stations.
For the 2021 Sweepstakes, Avalanche Alliance partnered with Lynx, Fly Racing, KLIM, Marlon, Timbersled and others to give away a custom-built 2022 Lynx Boondocker 850 with many other incredible prizes to raise money for avalanche awareness and education initiatives around the U.S.
Avalanche Alliance is made up of multiple companies and organizations across the motorized community who all collaborate to bring Avalanche Education and Awareness to the forefront of our industry. Proceeds from these sweepstakes will be awarded to avalanche centers in support of motorized-focused projects and programs.
This has been a monumental step for the motorized snowsport community, with brands and riders joining together for the common goal of reducing avalanche fatalities among the community. The need for motorized-specific avalanche safety improvements remains significant, and this partnership of like-minded brands and organizations indicates a noteworthy step towards improvements in training, forecasting and infrastructure for the benefit of riders everywhere.
"Avalanche Centers are a key link in the connection between the snowmobiling community and the goal of reducing the impact of avalanches and avalanche accidents,” said Jeff Hambelton, AIARE Motorized Program Manager and NWAC staff member. “With these sweepstakes, we can support Avalanche Centers' efforts to build better tools for the motorized community.”
Avalanche centers, while partially funded in the U.S. by the Forest Service, rely on strong community support for their efforts to present the most up-to-date and useful information for backcountry travelers. Avalanche centers fund and manage remote weather stations, employ forecasters to track and interpret field and weather data, and increasingly play a leading role in education efforts for underserved populations in the backcountry.
Avalanche safety is extremely important to motorized users. This fundraiser was a way for Avalanche Alliance to join snowmobilers, snowbikers, manufacturers, avalanche centers and others together in support of avalanche safety initiatives. More fundraisers in the future will continue to support these efforts.