Avalanche forecasting a labor of love

For avalanche forecaster Erich Peitzsch, a day at the office could mean miles on a snowmobile, miles on skis and 3,000 to 5,000 feet of climbing. A “big” day could mean 7,000 feet.

The Columbia Falls resident is the interim director of the Flathead National Forest’s Flathead Avalanche Center. The center issues avalanche advisories on Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays — a change he made soon after he took over the post in mid-November.

“We want to focus when people are recreating and where people are recreating,” he said in a recent interview.

Those skiing outings in the mountains aren’t fun and games — they’re science. Peitzsch and volunteers perform tests in the field to check the stability of the snowpack. Peitzsch gets out three to four days a week, in all sorts of conditions.

Last weekend’s rains, which drifted as high as 6,000 feet, are of particular concern, he said. The rains make snow heavier, and underneath all the heavy snow is a weak layer laid down in November and December, when temperatures were much colder. That could set up some high avalanche danger.

And there’s plenty of snow in the mountains. The snowpack in the Flathead River Basin is 115 percent of average basinwide, and other areas, like the Noisy Basin in the Jewel Basin, are 33 percent above average.

Peitzsch grew up in southwest Pennsylvania and played ice hockey as a kid. He came west when he attended Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Ore. and later became a ski patroller at Alpine Meadows Ski Area in Lake Tahoe, Calif. which piqued his interest in snow and avalanches.

After getting a master’s in snow science at Montana State University, he took a position as an avalanche specialist with the U.S. Geological Survey at Glacier National Park in 2007.

Glacier Park uses avalanche experts each spring to forecast conditions as plow crews clear the Going-to-the-Sun Road. He works in the summer as a physical scientist studying snow and ice with the USGS Climate Change Center in Glacier Park.

Peitzsch moved to Columbia Falls permanently in 2009. His wife, Laura Fay, is a research scientist with Montana State University’s Western Transportation Institute.

Peitzsch doesn’t generate all the avalanche forecasts himself. He receives reports from trusted sources, including Ted Steiner, an avalanche forecaster with BNSF Railway. Numerous volunteers and local avalanche experts also conduct surveys.

The Flathead Avalanche Center covers about 3 million acres — from Soup Creek in the Swan Range all the way north to Red Meadow in the Whitefish Range. That includes the Middle Fork and southern Glacier Park areas.

Peitzsch cautions that the advisories are just that — advice. People should take note of terrain and conditions before venturing into steep terrain in the backcountry.

“It’s a tool to help people in their decision-making process,” he said.

The center’s Web site, www.flatheadavalanche.org, has grown in popularity over the past few months. Peitzsch said they’ve added videos to many advisories, which give people a better sense of conditions, rather than just the usual written report.

He’s also working on forming a “friends” group to support the new site and center. The Forest Service took over the task of avalanche forecasting last year when the Glacier Country Avalanche Center dissolved because of lack of funding and support.

The Flathead Forest will make the center’s director a permanent seasonal position next year, spokesman Wade Muehlhof said. Right now, Peitzsch works part-time for the Flathead Forest and part-time for the USGS.

Peitzsch will meet the public at the Night Owl/Back Room Restaurant in Columbia Falls at 7 a.m. on Friday, Jan. 17, during a no-host breakfast and discussion about the center and avalanche forecasting.