START A CHAPTER
Interested in bringing free, community-based snowpack and avalanche awareness events to your community? We’d love to hear from you.
BRING SOTS TO YOUR MOUNTAIN COMMUNITY
State of the Snowpack provides a framework that mountain communities can adapt to create recurring, locally relevant events that bring avalanche professionals and recreational backcountry users together to learn, share and connect.
YOU BRING THE COMMUNITY
we bring the framework
Starting a SOTS chapter doesn't mean figuring everything out from scratch.
SOTS provides the event framework, planning tools, presentation templates, marketing resources, livestream equipment and support needed to get a chapter up and running. Your local team brings the people, relationships, knowledge and personality that make the events relevant to your community. Every chapter looks a little different. That's the point.
built around community
Every mountain community is different—and every SOTS chapter should reflect the people, mountains and backcountry culture around it.
SOTS events bring together the people who spend their winters skiing, riding, sledding, touring, climbing, guiding, patrolling, forecasting, rescuing and exploring in the local mountains. Different backgrounds. Different experience levels. Different ways of moving through the backcountry. One room.
It's a place to talk about the snowpack, but also everything that comes with spending time in the mountains—the great days, the hard days, close calls, lessons learned, uncertainty, changing conditions and the stories picked up along the way.
The conversations are informative, but they should also be fun, welcoming and real. People ask questions. People share experiences. People laugh. People learn from each other.
we bring the framework
Local communities bring SOTS to life. The framework provides the structure and support behind it.
A SOTS chapter hosts a series of free community events, creating an ongoing conversation about how the local snowpack is developing over the season. Every chapter looks a little different—but the goal is the same: make high-quality, locally relevant snowpack information more accessible and help people make better decisions in the backcountry.
Event Framework & Toolkit
A proven event structure, step-by-step guides, templates and planning resources.
Presentation Framework
Shared presentation templates and resources that make it easier for local avalanche professionals to collaborate and share snowpack information.
Chapter Support
Ongoing support as local teams build their chapter, plan their season and host events.
Livestream Equipment & Support
Equipment, training and technical support to help make local conversations accessible beyond the room.
Marketing & Branding
SOTS branding, promotional assets, website support and event marketing resources.
Professional Community
Opportunities for avalanche professionals to share knowledge, connect with their community and earn recognized Continuing Professional Development (CPD) through eligible participation.
your local team
What matters is having a local backcountry community that wants to connect, qualified professionals willing to share their knowledge, and people who believe better access to local information can help everyone make more informed decisions in the backcountry.
The volunteers behind SOTS chapters come from across the mountain community—avalanche forecasters, guides, ski patrollers, Search and Rescue volunteers, resort teams, government agencies, tenure operators, recreational backcountry users and others who simply want to bring their community together.
What they share is local knowledge, strong relationships and a commitment to creating something valuable for the people who spend time in the mountains around them. A chapter typically brings together:
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The local person helping bring everything together.
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Qualified, actively working professionals who lead the local snowpack conversation.
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Someone who keeps the evening moving and makes the room feel welcoming.
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A local volunteer who helps bring the conversation beyond the room.
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An accessible gathering place for the local backcountry community.
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A few good people and local organizations willing to pitch in and help make it happen.
You don't need to have everything figured out before getting in touch. The SOTS framework is there to help you work through it.
If you think State of the Snowpack could work in your mountain community, start the conversation by completing the chapter interest form.