With a Grand Teton National Park skier’s death on Monday, the nation’s avalanche fatality rate has climbed to 32 so far this winter. That’s a grim statistic, with two of those deaths coming in Montana and another one in Idaho last week that killed a Corvallis man. Given more use of the backcountry, an unstable snowpack and another two months of skiing and snowmobiling possible, the nation seems on pace to break the old record of 36 avalanche fatalities set in the winter of 2009-10. Learn more about the snowpack and the nation’s avalanche fatality rate by logging on to my story at https://billingsgazette.com/outdoors/wyoming-skier-killed-in-grand-teton-avalanche-national-toll-climbs-to-32/article_fa5f06cb-e5d8-5dd4-aa9c-881bba69140a.html

Written by Brett French – Outdoor Editor for the Billings Gazette/Montana Untamed