Experience The Mountain Parks Blog

How to be safe this winter, act now!

Following on my previous post about avalanche awareness, there are some avalanche courses you might want to check.
Each year an increasing number of skiers, snowboarders, snowshoers, and climbers venture in the backcountry. Each year we regrettably count new people dying in avalanches.
Avalanche skills training courses exist and are essential first steps to safe winter backcountry outings. Those courses are provided by qualified Canadian Avalanche Association professionals.
There is even a snowmobile-specific course. The College of the Rockies Invermere Campus is proposing courses including avalanche terrain recognition, avalanche climatology, snow stability evaluation, alpine touring practices, avalanche accidents along with search and rescue techniques. These courses are not only geared towards professionals but also to outdoor enthusiasts looking at safety first.

Two courses - Avalanche Skills Training Level I - are already lined up and available:
So far this program was offered by Fernie Campus only but not Invermere Campus.
We checked their website but no information was given regarding this particular training course at the Invermere Campus.
So you're among the first ones to know, we hope you'll be the first ones to register to help you go through a safe winter. 

Course #1:
Wednesday, December 16, 2009 from 6:00 pm to 9:30 pm
Friday, December 18, 2009 from 6:00 pm to 9:30 pm and
Saturday, December 19, 2009  from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm

Course #2:
Wednesday, February 17, 2010 from 6:00 pm to 9:30 pm
Friday, February 19, 2010 from 6:00 pm to 9:30 pm and
Saturday, February 20, 2010 from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm

Cost is $185 and includes reference book. Students will require their own beacon, probe and shovel. Class size is limited to 16.

To register or for more information, contact the College of the Rockies at 250-342-3210.

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AVALANCHE!

I heard some weeks back the Canadian Avalanche Association (CAA, not to confuse with the CAA, Canadian Automobile Association though) was about to re-launch their Web site. If you've never been there, and are planning some backcountry trip, this is a web site you've got to visit, and learn from. So I checked back from time to time. A few days ago it finally appeared new, well only the public and professional sections have been re-visited so far. This is a huge repository of info! I would not recommend it unless you've got at least 30 minutes in front of you. You can browse for hours...which might not be a good thing I admit. I got lost a couple of times and tried either the site map or the search engine to find my way back! Not a good sign, signage you might say. But don't forget as it's all about avalanches, you'll easily get buried under one, information. So as I said, if you know your route, perfect, you'll get confirmation there; if you don't, stay calm, grab a coffee, warm up, make sure you've got 2 hours in front of you and prepare your outing! Indulge yourself, you won't be deceived!


Another thing -- see the video teaser above --, there is a Canmore video production company posting some neat awareness and educational videos on their Web site. Excellent initiative I thought. They say they'll transfer this material to the Canadian Avalanche Association Web site some time at spring next year. Anyways you can get a look at it here.

So, I grabbed two videos I wanted to show you. They come from this website. I found these videos worth sharing and I liked the concept of this website. Go get a look for yourself.


This one is called "Inverse Grading Ruby Mountains, March 2005", by Tom Waclo. (That's an avalanche control mission~ndrl)


This other one is called "Climax Avalanche" and is about an avalanche control mission in New Zealand going bigger than expected.

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