E-mailed forecasts of avalanche activity that skiers, guides and others use to avoid dangerous terrain are getting snared in traps Comcast sets for spam.
Some of the forecasts the Colorado Avalanche Information Center sends by e-mail twice each day began falling through the cracks about a week ago, said the center’s director, Ethan Greene.
Philadelphia-based Comcast Communications hopes to have the problem resolved today, said Comcast spokeswoman Cindy Parsons.
“We are currently working with the Colorado Avalanche Information Center to address any blocking issues they may have encountered. As the leading residential broadband Internet service provider, we take our responsibility to combat spam very seriously,” she said. “The company has reduced inbound/outbound spam by more than 70 percent by utilizing a variety of techniques that stop spam at the server level.”
The center has received about 25 complaints from people who say they haven’t been getting the twice-daily forecasts, Greene said.
He doesn’t know exactly how many of the 3,500 e-mails the center sends twice daily have been held up. Spam programs used by other Internet providers also may be trapping the forecasts, he said.
The center has been sending the e-mails to ski-industry businesses, the Colorado Department of Transportation and individual users for several years.
The e-mail delays come when avalanche fatalities are already higher than average, with the clock still ticking in the 2007-2008 winter-recreation season. Avalanches have claimed 28 lives in the U.S. so far, according to the center.
During the last 10 winters in the United States, an average of 25 people have died annually in avalanches.
“There are lots of outdoorspeople who take this pretty seriously. They use the forecasts to make their weekend plans,” said Ann Mellick, an avalanche forecaster at the center.
Tom McGhee: 303-954-1671 or tmcghee@denverpost.com
