Avalanche Education & Awareness Intern
UTAH AVALANCHE CENTER
2025-2026 Avalanche Education & Awareness Intern
Job Description
The Utah Avalanche Center (UAC) is a collaborative effort between the 501(c)(3) Utah Avalanche Center and the United States Forest Service Utah Avalanche Center. Our mission is to keep people on top of The Greatest Snow On EarthⓇ by providing avalanche forecasting, awareness, and education throughout Utah. We have offices in Logan, Salt Lake City, Spring City, and Moab, with the non-profit headquarters in Salt Lake City. Our core belief is that everyone can enjoy recreating in snow-covered mountains if they follow a few simple safety principles. Because the USFS Utah Avalanche Center does not receive adequate funding to meet these objectives fully, the nonprofit side of the organization helps bridge the gap to ensure high-quality awareness and education programs.
To support these efforts, the UAC seeks two part-time avalanche education and awareness interns for the 2025-2026 season. The position begins no later than August 25, 2025, and is expected to require approximately 20 hours per week through April 3, 2026. Applicants must be available to work weekends and weekday evenings. The internship primarily supports the nonprofit side of the UAC and does not include on-snow work with avalanche forecasters, observers, and staff. However, on-snow opportunities may arise depending on the intern’s qualifications, capabilities, and interests. Responsibilities may include community outreach, assisting with avalanche awareness presentations, supporting the delivery of on-snow avalanche education classes, helping to maintain the UAC online store, assisting with fundraising events, and performing general administrative tasks.
Primary Responsibilities, General Administrative Criteria, and Benefits
Responsibilities
- Education: Support the success of the UAC’s Education Program by assisting with on-snow avalanche awareness courses, managing student communications and enrollment, helping to execute the Utah Snow and Avalanche Workshops, and more.
- Know Before You Go: Support the Know Before You Go (KBYG) program by delivering presentations to students and adults across Utah. This will require some night and weekend presentations.
- Awareness: Represent the UAC at public awareness events by interacting with attendees, answering questions about avalanche safety, and sharing the UAC’s mission.
- Awareness: Assist with the delivery of the UAC’s Trailhead Avalanche Awareness Program, typically held on weekend mornings during the winter, as well as smaller events such as ski swaps, retail sales, and other outreach opportunities, often held on weekends or weekday nights.
- Fundraising: Provide administrative and fundraising support, including coordinating events, assisting with donor outreach and data entry, and supporting the Development Director’s fundraising initiatives.
- Operations: Assist with UAC program operations, including fulfilling online orders and membership gifts, supporting trailhead sign deployment and maintenance, contributing to social media content and gathering media, and more.
Requirements
- Must be 21 years of age or older due to venue and event requirements.
- Must have strong written and verbal communication skills and feel confident engaging with the public in individual and group settings.
- Must be proficient with basic avalanche rescue techniques and backcountry travel gear, and possess sufficient physical fitness for a full day of backcountry riding.
- Must have reliable winter transportation capable of carrying event and field equipment.
- Must have completed a Recreational Level 1 avalanche class.
Benefits
Interns receive an hourly rate of $15/hr. Additional benefits include mileage reimbursement, eligible expense reimbursement, and access to industry pro deals with participating partners.
How to Apply
Interested applicants should send a PDF resume and cover letter to McKinley Talty at education@utahavalanchecenter.org using the subject line “2025-2026 Internship Application”. The deadline for submission is June 29, 2025.