If there’s enough snow in the mountains to think about making some turns, there’s enough snow to start thinking about avalanches.
That’s the message Avalanche Canada (formerly the Canadian Avalanche Association) public avalanche forecaster Grant Helgeson will share at his Backcountry Avalanche Workshop hosted by the Alpine Club of Canada on Monday (Nov. 24).
“If there’s enough snow to be making turns, then there’s enough snow to cause an avalanche,” Helgeson said. “We need to start turning on our avalanche brains; when there’s enough snow to ride, there’s enough snow to slide.”
Helgeson’s talk will be aimed toward a broad audience, ranging from novice backcountry recreationalists to experienced veterans who enjoy a wide range of backcountry activities, including ice climbers, lift-accessed backcountry skiers, ski mountaineers, sledders and ski tourers who use snowmobiles to access fresh turns in hard-to-reach places outside of the national parks.
“As soon as we start thinking of tuning up the sled or waxing the skis, we need to start thinking about tuning up our avalanche awareness,” Helgeson said. “That means everyone - skiers, alpinists, sledders – anyone who travels in avalanche terrain.”
His presentation will include two case studies of real avalanche accidents, both of which highlight universal lessons, albeit via different specifics. One shares a story of a skier who ventured into uncontrolled backcountry terrain accessed by riding a ski hill chair lift, the other a highly experienced group travelling in complex terrain.
Both cases use storytelling to depict the steps backcountry travellers need to employ to recognize hazards and make safe decisions in avalanche terrain, including gear, weather, snowpack, training and companion rescue, with a focus on the effect of human factors.
“They’re both interesting stories,” Helgeson said. “It’s always a neat way to learn, through storytelling. Like the saying goes, those who don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it. These specific case studies do a really good job of highlighting interesting learnables as we head back into the backcountry this winter.”
The presentation will also include the introduction of Avalanche Canada’s new website map, set to launch in mid-November, as well as the Mountain Information Network (MIN), a new platform for users to post and view observations that will be integrated with the website map.
Based on a system that’s been employed in regions around the world with great success, the MIN marks Avalanche Canada’s first crowd-sourcing venture, inviting users to submit field observations to be shared with the public quickly in an open format. It will work with the new website map, which incorporates professional level meteorology, mountain weather, snowpack, daily forecasting and incident observations, all displayed in a map-based format complete with longitude and latitude tags.
“It’s one-stop shopping,” Helgeson said.
The Backcountry Avalanche Workshop takes place on Monday, Nov. 24, at the ACC Clubhouse on Indian Flats Road. Running from 7-9 p.m., the event is free and open to the public.
To learn more visit www.avalanche.ca
