The more information backcountry users have at their fingertips, the easier it is to make safer choices. That’s why the Colorado Avalanche Information Center (CAIC) offers a suite of useful tools, from its avalanche field reports to weather and avalanche forecasts for the entire Rocky Mountain region of the state.
This season, CAIC released a brand-new online tool for backcountry travelers to add to their kit and upgraded several of its most helpful features. People will now be able to access a totally new Weather Station Map display, which maps accurate snowfall reports from around the state.
CAIC also added a more comprehensive Avalanche Accident Data Display, upgraded its public Field Reports, and improved its Media Gallery.
“The Colorado Avalanche Information Center’s forecasts are relied on by many winter recreationists across the state,” Dan Gibbs, executive director of the Colorado Department of Natural Resources, said in a press release. “These new data, reporting, and visualization features will help people better understand conditions, make smarter choices, and ultimately protect lives.”
CAIC is one of the most important resources backcountry skiers, hikers, and snowmobilers have in Colorado. Since 1950, avalanches have killed more people in the Centennial State than any other natural hazard, and it’s CAIC’s mission to mitigate those deaths as much as possible. It provides avalanche education, runs awareness campaigns, and promotes research.
Every day, CAIC publishes avalanche forecasts for 27,656 square miles of backcountry terrain in Colorado. It also offers weather forecasts, avalanche education resources, maintains a record of avalanche accidents, and accepts avalanche field reports from public observations.
“Most of these new products we just rolled out have been in development for one to two years,” Ethan Greene, director of CAIC, told GearJunkie. “We’re constantly thinking about what we’re doing and identifying ways we can improve our service to the public. That process turns into planning, funding, and then executing and launching projects. It is quite literally an ongoing process.”
New: Weather Station Map
Scattered across Colorado’s high country, an army of weather stations measures and reports snowfall data to the different entities that maintain them.
This new tool compiles that data from hundreds of stations, maintained by ski areas, the SNOTEL network, the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT), and CAIC. It displays this collective information on a map using color-coded circles to indicate the amount of snow a station has reported.
“One thing we consistently heard from users was that they wanted to see this information on a map. We built a platform that allows them to do that, while still offering multiple ways to dig into the data or look at broader summaries,” Greene said.
For chasing storms, planning routes, or assessing risk levels, this is an incredibly useful tool. Even for non-backcountry skiers, this tool could be helpful for cross-checking snowfall reports near different resorts.
Expanded: Avalanche Accident Data Display
CAIC has been keeping a record of fatal avalanches since 2009. The webpage has summary tables and charts displaying trends both in Colorado and nationwide.
This year, CAIC expanded this dataset, integrating “quality-checked historical Colorado records” of fatal avalanches going back to 1997 and nonfatal avalanches back to 2011.
“The focus is on the growing amount of accident records available online,” Greene said. “This allows people to view avalanche accidents in areas they’re planning to visit, or to look up specific incidents they’re already aware of and want to better understand.”
Upgraded: Field Reporting
If you visit the Observations page on the CAIC website, you’ll find reports on snowfall, weather, and avalanche conditions that have been submitted to CAIC by its own staff, outdoor professionals, and the general public. Here, you can submit field reports if you find or see an avalanche in the wild, use the Avalanche Explorer to filter reports by avalanche size, location, and type, and view backcountry avalanche and weather station data.
CAIC updated this feature to make field reports easier to submit, photos smoother to upload, and added support for native video. Field reports now also include more detailed information on avalanche locations, displaying both a general area and a specific site.
There is also a new mobile display that CAIC rolled out for both phones and tablets.
“More and more people are using mobile devices to access avalanche safety information, especially while traveling to or already out in the field,” Greene said. “Anything we can do to make that information easier to access — and easier to view on the device people are actually using — is a benefit to the public.”
Improved: Media Gallery
CAIC’s database includes thousands of images and videos submitted by individuals in field reports and collected from accident investigations. The site allows you to search, sort, and browse this media.
This gallery has been improved for 2026 to make the search functions easier and more user-friendly. It also improved navigation between image views, added a new system for CAIC forecasters to rate and highlight the most important photos and videos, and now, images and videos link back to their original reports.
“A picture is worth a thousand words, and video can be worth even more. We really appreciate people sharing that content with us, and we also collect a lot of it ourselves,” Greene said.
All of these new, expanded, upgraded, and improved features are designed to help people make the best choices possible in the backcountry, mitigate risk, and minimize the fatal accidents that occur in Colorado every year.
“We couldn’t do the work we’re doing now without people’s support and participation, both using the information we provide and sharing information with us,” Greene said. “We hope we’re both providing valuable information to them and receiving valuable information from them.”
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