When Mack Talty joined the Utah Avalanche Center as an intern during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, he couldn’t have known how closely the backcountry community would remain connected despite social distancing.
“I had no idea how many people cared so much about people’s safety in the backcountry here,” he said. “Especially during COVID, when we thought our numbers were going to go down and weren’t sure about fundraising, that was one of our biggest years. It was really cool to see the community come together and just show appreciation for what they love.”
Mack joined the Utah Avalanche Center in 2020 after graduating with a degree in earth and snow sciences. His internship season — during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic — meant adapting fast, livestreaming avalanche talks, pushing digital education and getting teachers to plug the center’s resources in their classrooms at a time when gathering the backcountry community in person wasn’t feasible.
“A lot of the internship was based around just trying to get creative,” said Talty. “It’s really a lot of just having those extra hands to sort of help do outreach and sort of on-the-ground things outside of classic forecasting. It’s a very community-centered position, but there’s room to kind of focus on what you want to focus on.”
The Utah Avalanche Center internship program gives young professionals a crash course in nonprofit work, avalanche education and community engagement. Interns help run events, support education programs, and step in wherever an extra hand is needed. The program runs from August through April, while interns are out in the field, online, and onstage, building the skills that keep backcountry users safe and informed.
“This is a great program to see how a small nonprofit operates, especially in an area that people are passionate about,” said Mack Talty, education manager and former intern at the center.
The center’s education mission is rooted in prevention. Through courses, presentations, and outreach efforts, the center aims to prepare those entering avalanche terrain — especially newcomers to the backcountry.
The Know Before You Go program is now in its 23rd year, having grown from offering presentations in schools and local youth groups to reaching almost 40 countries this year. These presentations introduce basic avalanche awareness, rescue skills, and risk assessment to students, recreational groups and the broader public. Interns play a key role in delivering that message as presenters of the program.
“One skill a lot of our interns come out with is just getting comfortable with public speaking. You’re facing the community every day, and you get really comfortable talking to people and just making personal connections,” said Talty.
Interns, often recent graduates or young professionals, have a greater impact than just providing extra hands on deck, said Talty. It’s also a way to meet shifting backcountry demographics with new ideas and community-specific outreach.
“People come to Utah from all over and they’re amped to get into the mountains, but there’s stuff they need to learn before they go do it,” said Talty. “The demographics of people who are getting caught in avalanches is always changing. We’re always trying to update our curriculum. It’s a continuing task of trying to meet the people where they’re at.”
One of this year’s interns used her local ties to organize a season-end event in Ogden that brought in dozens of community members, relying on her homegrown connections as a born-and-raised Utahn. Another tapped into the University of Utah ski scene to connect with students new to the Wasatch.
“Our internship program is essential to making sure that we’re able to do everything that we can do. Having hands to staff these events and be a good steward to the community is so important, and that’s really where our internship program steps in. It’s just helping us complete all of our goals,” said Talty.
For Talty, the internship didn’t just open doors professionally, it revealed a vibrant network of people committed to public safety in the mountains.
The application window for the 2025–26 Utah Avalanche Center Internship Program is open with an extended deadline of July 6. The application details can be found here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1vheD-g956YKv7Cz-4RMgEtLDAbIySItb/view. Talty is accepting applications by email at [email protected].