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Climate change comes to northern Idaho: Extreme weather, more frequent avalanches, reconfigured watersheds

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Upper Ross Creek
A wet slide in Upper Ross Creek, in the Cabinet Mountains. Photo: Kevin Davis, U.S. Forest Service

Kevin Davis has spent 20-plus years working and playing in the wintry backcountry of Sandpoint’s bookend mountain ranges.

On the job for the U.S. Forest Service and the Idaho Panhandle Avalanche Center, Davis monitors weather fronts and SNOTEL data across a wide swath of the northern Rockies, then tidily chisels backcountry snow pits to take a look inside.

After hours and on days off, he carves deep turns on some of those same untamed slopes, putting his weekly avalanche advisories to real-life tests in the Cabinet and Selkirk mountains. [Read more…]

Skiers unexpected, but passionate advocates for climate protection

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Porter Fox
“Our planet’s climate is warming,” says author Porter Fox. “And when it gets hot, snow melts. That is the simple reality that cannot be avoided. As long as the climate is warming, you’ll see less and less snow around the world. And regardless of what your politics are or how many snow guns you’ve got, there is no way to stop what a 2- or 3-degree temperature increase will mean: less snow in the backyard and in the mountains, less runoff, diminished streamflows, degraded river habitat.” Photo: Courtesy Porter Fox

 

Porter Fox is not a fortune teller. He has no crystal ball.

Rather, he is a skier turned ski writer – the most prolific in the industry, known for his meticulous research and fierce love of winter and snow and the lifestyle they support.

So when Fox’s attention turned to the Earth’s elevating temperature, and its potentially devastating impact on winter, he was driven to share that story everywhere he could find a listening or reading audience. [Read more…]