Avalanche Alliance makes sizable donation to promote avalanche safety initiatives

Avalanche Alliance has announced that its 2021 sweepstakes raised $119,365 for Avalanche Education and Awareness initiatives around the U.S.

Following the success of two previous Avalanche Alliance/KLIM sled giveaways, the fundraiser was a way for Avalanche Alliance to join snowmobilers, snowbikers, manufacturers, avalanche centers and riders together in support of avalanche safety initiatives. Proceeds from the sweepstakes were awarded as grants to 10 U.S.-based Avalanche Centers in support of motorized-focused projects and programs.

“We created the Avalanche Alliance to allow people to become more educated about avalanche safety training and why it’s necessary,” said John Summers, marketing director, KLIM. “We’ve all been affected by avalanche tragedies, and we want to educate our motorized community that there’s a need to be trained when it comes to avalanches and help get the word out about greater backcountry safety. Ultimately, our goal is to reduce avalanche deaths.”

Grants from $3,000 to $20,000 were awarded to 10 Avalanche Centers across the country to support the expansion of forecasting for motorized areas based on specific needs in each area, including installing new weather and beacon check stations, increasing service to traditionally motorized areas, expanding snowmobile operations with daily avalanche forecasts for motorized users, centralizing reporting to crowd-source data and enhancing snowmobile education and outreach through robust motorized ambassador programs. The scope of these projects will provide a positive and long-lasting impact on the safety of the motorized community.

“The sweepstakes was a really amazing catalyst to bring the motorized community together and center those conversations around education and access because that’s what it comes down to, really,” said Vickie Hormuth, executive director, American Institute for Avalanche Research and Education. “It was really neat to be able to fund so many centers and so many different projects, and the neat thing about that is a $5,000 investment can reach thousands of users every year.”

For 2022, Avalanche Alliance is again running a bigger sweepstakes than ever before, with the Grand Prize 2022 Ford F-350 Super Duty at the top of an epic list of prizes. Entries start as low as a $25 donation. For more info on the 2022 sweepstakes: https://www.tapkat.org/american-institute-for-avalanche-research-education/m9mn65