REVELSTOKE, BRITISH COLUMBIA Stay safe this season The Canadian Avalanche Centre welcomes the continuation of funding by SANDRA ALBERS
DANGER ZONE: Snowmobilers today can access serious avalanche country, as this photo, taken in Alberta’s Bow Valley, illustrates. Safety courses are a must. —photo by Clair Israelson
Consult the information. Get some training. Get the gear.
These are the three standard messages that John Kelly, operations manager of the Canadian Avalanche Centre (CAC) based in Revelstoke, B.C., would like to get out as the winter outdoor recreation season approaches.
Kelly welcomed the recent announcement that Environment Canada funding for the avalanche centre will continue for several more years. The funding, totalling $625,ooo, comes from two separate sources within Environment Canada: Parks Canada will contribute $400,000 over the next four years, and the Meteorological Service of Canada will supply $225,000 over three years.
Alarming numbers
Snowmobilers are now the largest backcountry user group in Canada, Kelly said, and he presented some startling statistics.
Kelly said snowmobile riders account for one-quarter of avalanche fatalities in Canada. Across the border in the United States, the numbers are even more grim; half of all avalanche fatalities in the U.S. are snowmobilers.
“Over the last 15 years in particular, the proportion of accidents involving snowmobilers has risen,” he said.
Kelly attributes the rising numbers to today’s powerful snow machines, which can reach high alpine peaks and bowls that would have been inaccessible 15 or 20 years ago.
“In most cases, the (older) machine wasn’t as easy to use; only the most skilled rider could make it into that terrain,” Kelly said.
Today, anyone can climb onto a snowmobile and access some serious avalanche country, he pointed out.
Kelly added that mountain snowmobiling has received a lot of media exposure and has become a “much more visible and sought-after experience.”
Kelly said consulting the information should include regular readings of the CAC’s online public avalanche warning program, which provides bulletins that are updated three times a week and occasionally more often if there is a particularly high risk (www.avalanche.ca).
Getting some training is critical; the CAC holds public avalanche and awareness skills training courses (levels 1 and 2) and free two-hour avalanche safety seminars specifically geared to snowmobile enthusiasts (check the website for dates and locations).
As for getting the gear, Kelly said three items (over and above the standard safety equipment) are vital when venturing into avalanche terrain: a beacon, a probe and a shovel.
“Avalanches are by far the deadliest natural hazard in Canada,” said CAC executive director Clair Israelson, “killing more people than forest fires, floods, earthquakes and lightning combined.
“At the Canadian Avalanche Centre, we are creating world-class public safety programs that save lives.”
Israelson said the recent funding announcement means that the CAC can continue to develop and deliver these programs and services across Canada in both official languages.
Kelly added that snowmobile outreach programs are also offered in many Alberta communities, because Alberta snowmobilers may be less familiar with the hazards of mountainous terrain.
