Canada’s national public avalanche safety organization introduced its new identity and new logo last week in Banff.
Avalanche Canada, formerly Canadian Avalanche Centre, was ceremoniously unveiled at The Banff Centre’s Max Bell Building on Thursday (Oct. 2). It will have the same programs, products and services developed over the past decade, including the use of avalanche.ca as its official website, so there will be no change as to where the public can find avalanche safety information.
Avalanche Canada executive director Gilles Valade said the group will provide the same recognized platforms for Canada’s recreational winter backcountry users.
“As we look forward to our next 10 years, we wanted to create a brand identity that is separate from the Canadian Avalanche Association, the organization that serves and supports professional avalanche workers in Canada,” Valade said.
Representatives from the Alberta and British Columbia government attended the launch, including Banff-Cochrane MLA Ron Casey, who said the day was really about promoting avalanche awareness and education.
“Reducing that risk is really what this is about. You can’t remove the risk, all you can do is make people aware of the level of risk. It’s still always a personal choice as to what risk level you’re going to accept, but people do that knowingly now, as opposed to unexpectedly being put in a dangerous situation,” Casey said.
According to avalanche.ca, from 1998 to 2007, approximately 14 avalanche fatalities occur in Canada per year.
Casey said that avalanche awareness is “relatively new,” but the impact has been huge.
The announcement came at an especially a sensitive time for members of the outdoor community as an avalanche killed freeskier Canadian J.P. Auclair and Swedish skier Andreas Fransson on Mount San Lorenzo in Patagonia, on the border of Chile and Argentina on Sept. 29.
Justin Trudeau, leader of the Liberal Party of Canada, gave a video acknowledgment of the ceremony. Trudeau’s youngest brother, Michel, was killed by an avalanche while skiing in B.C. in 1998.
“I would like to sincerely congratulate the Avalanche Canada Foundation on its official launch … let’s all take one moment to remember the friends, colleagues and loved ones that so many of us have lost over the years. They are why we continue to strengthen the avalanche community, research, and public awareness,” Trudeau said in the video, concluding with a happy birthday to his brother.
Kananaskis Public Safety Officer Mike Koppang said there has been a “big push” to get weather station data on the website to give people access so they can become better informed about their backcountry decisions.
“The big thing we want people to do is read the avalanche forums. The meat and potatoes of what’s going on out there is in the Avalanche Forum,” Koppang said. “We’re going to continue with social media stuff and continue to work and push a lot of the messaging out.
“The really important messaging is about early season problems specific to ice climbing … we typically have had an early season avalanche fatality over the last number of years related to ice climbing.”
Both Alberta and B.C. governments announced continued support for public avalanche safety, as B.C. will allocate $450,000 in 2014-15 to Avalanche Canada, and Alberta will give $250,000.
