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Key Words: Avalanche,NationalCentre,Canada,Informa-
tion, Training
ABSTRACT
TheevolutionandactivitiesoftheCanadian Avalanche
Centre(CAC)are examined.TheCACisdirected bythe
Canadian AvalancheAssociation.Three of its main facets
are: the Training Schools;an InformationExchange; and
the Public Safety Services. Keeping pacewith technology,
rapidly growing usergroups,and fluctuations in funding
sources, havebeen the primary forces influencing changes
at the CAC. As well, several additional projects have been
administered by the CAC are identified.
INTRODUCTION
In Canada we have benefited greatly fromthe experience
of othercountries.We hope that there may be some ele-
mentsofwhatisdoneinCanada thatmaybeusefulin
yourarea.
Geographically,the greatestconcentration of avalanche
involvements and fatalities in Canada lies inside a triangle
from Edson to PincherCreek to Vancouver Island.In the
past 12 years, 72%of all fatalities have beenin thistriangle.
In addition, Canada has large mountain areas where there
a very few people.There are the huge avalanche areas of
the Coast Range,themountainsof the YukonandNorthwest
Territories,Labradorand Newfoundland as well asQue-
bec, where in the past few years there hasbeen an increas-
ingnumberofavalancheincidentsreported.Butthe
concentration remains inside Canada's avalanchetriangle.
We,in Canada, have perhapsthe greatestamount of ava-
lancheterrainused on a given dayby highways, developed
ski areas and backcountry ski operations. For example, the
heli-skiingindustry alone operatesin a total of about 30 000
km2of terrain -- on some days 20-30% of this terrain may
be used. The combination of thehelicopter skiing industry,
snowmobiling and thehighwayssystem in Canadahave an
extraordinaryrate ofexposure.Thereisan exceptionally
high standard of service required so that the roads remain
openandtominimizedaccidentsinallbackcountry
activities.Skiareaoperations,highwayspersonnel,re-
source industry (particularly forestry and mining), guiding
operations andpublic safety organizationsare all examples
of groups that rely on thevarious services of the CAC.
HISTORY, NRC AND THE CAA
The earliest record, starting in 1884, of Canada's avalanche
history issadly shown in the record of terrible accidents
that were a result of ignorance and attitude. Economic re-
alitiesand anincreasing concern aboutthevalue ofhu-
manlifesawthe firstdevelopmentsinavalanche safety
forrailways.Then the long tunnels were built.A few ex-
amples still exist,like the 8 km Connaught Tunnel. There
were very few people in the mountains in winter and in-
side the skiareas,skiers did notdemand the more chal-
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lenging avalanche prone terrain. In the 1950's that started
to change.The construction ofthe Rogers PassHighway
promptedtheNationalResearchCouncil(NRC)tostart
avalanche research and give advice on the road construc-
tion. In 1974 a major avalancheaccident at a cafe beside a
British Columbia highway prompted the NRC toform an
avalanche section.At about the same time the growth in
backcountry use and helicopter skiing increased dramati-
cally. A transition was occurring, the industry related ava-
lanche accidentsstarted to decreasebut the number of rec-
reational accidentsstarted to grow.
InSeptember1975thefirstmeetingoftheavalanche
committeewasheldbytheillustriousgroupofPeter
Schaerer, GeoffFreer,andRon Perla. They were soon joined
byWilli Pfistererrepresenting ParksCanada.Thissmall
groupwerethe beginning ofwhatbecame,in 1983,the
CanadianAvalancheAssociation(CAA),anon-profit
(definitely) and non-government (partly) society. Theiden-
tity of the CAA is also well described by the termquango ,
aquasi-autonomousnon-governmentorganization.Even
in the earliest stages the membership was representedby a
broadcross-sectionofpursuitsandskillsrequiredto
representeveryone in theavalanchebusiness. Research sci-
ence,geographers, highways,engineering,meteorology, res-
cue, resource industry, snowmobiling,skiing,parks,and
geoscience are all represented.
TheconstitutionoftheCAAdescribesitsobjectives.
Thereare fivecommittees-technical,education, explo-
sives,membershipand publicsafety.TheCAAhas250
members who, with anelectedexecutive, decidethe policy
and direction of the association.One of the earliest objec-
tivesoftheassociationwastoestablishstandardsthat
wouldmaketheexchangeofinformationefficientand
ensure thatsimilar techniqueswere beingused to evaluate
snow stability. The Training School system was started by
the NRC and the British Columbia Institute of Technology
in the mid-1970's and was instrumentalin establishing this
mostbasic building block.
In 1991,funding forthe avalanche activities of the Na-
tionalResearch Councilceased. Fortunately theSchools
were well established and being run by the CAA.In addi-
tion to continuing the public safety work of the NRC there
were two otherevents that were the catalyst foropening
the Canadian AvalancheCentre in 1991. Firstly, there had
inthepreviousfewyearsbeensomeseriousavalanche
accidents where,upon investigation,it became apparent
that a moreimmediate exchangeof information about snow
stability and avalancheconditionsbetweenoperationsmay
have reducedthe risk of an avalancheaccident. A method
forinformationexchange was needed between near and
distantneighbors.Thesecond catalyst wasthedynamic
presidency of Chris Stethem who made doubters into be-
lievers and theCanadianAvalancheCentrestarted thefirst
winterofthe industryInformationExchange (InfoEx)in
the winter of 1990/91.
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