The International Snow Science Workshop will be held September 16-21, 2012 at the Dena’ina Center in Anchorage, Alaska. The setting for this year’s symposium is the urban environment of Alaska’s largest city surrounded by several mountain ranges within view of the conference center including: the Chugach Mountains, Alaska Range, and the volcanic Aleutian Range. We cordially invite you to join this biennial meeting of snow scientists and avalanche practitioners to continue striving toward the ISSW motto of, “The Merging of Theory and Practice.” Traditionally, ISSW has provided the avalanche industry a forum to: discuss theories, explore innovative concepts, and maintain the state-of-the-art practice in the field of avalanche work.
The boundless climate zones ranging from the temperate coastal rainforest in the southeast region to the frozen arctic environment in the northern region make Alaskan avalanche issues complex in the numerous mountain ranges that rise directly from sea level along the coast to elevations as high as 20,320 feet (6,194 meters) in Alaska’s interior. ISSW 2012 sincerely welcomes avalanche professionals from around the world to visit our unique aspect of mountain culture only found in Alaska. Although most of this 5 day event will be located inside, all ISSW participants will have the opportunity to leave the lecture halls for a field day to go explore a small portion of Alaska’s spectacular mountain scenery and learn about a few of Alaska’s avalanche programs.