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 TheAvalanche BulletinistheprimaryPublicSafety
Service. The Bulletin is totally reliant on data and reports
from the InfoEx to make it work. Without the InfoEx there
could be no Bulletin. The contribution of the InfoEx sub-
scribers cannot be overstated.The Avalanche Bulletin is
prepared at the Avalanche Centre on Monday and Thurs-
daymorningsforfourlargegeographiczones.These
comprise the most southern part of the Coast Range and
VancouverIsland,theNorthColumbiaMountains,the
South Columbia Mountains and the Rockies fromFernie
to Jasper.The reports overlap with some of the National
Parks bulletins.
The evolution of the Bulletin started with strictly a re-
port of weather,snowpack and reported avalancheactiv-
ity and any interpretation of the information was up to the
user.For the next two winters we were so bold as to issue
arating on stabilityaswell asa traveladvisory.Forthe
past two winters we have adopted the European five step
dangerscale and found ittobeconsiderablysuccessful.
Thisevolutionhasbeen determinedbytwofactors.The
firstisourcarefulincreaseinconfidenceinusingthe
InfoEx data and the trust of those observers in letting us
usetheirtechnical dataand puttingitintoaplainlan-
guage report forpublicuse.Secondly, there has been an
increased appreciationand demandfromthepublicfor
moredetailed information.We havefound and received
commentsaboutthefinelinebetween what isbysome
considered too general a report but,by others,a too tech-
nicalreport.We,likemostavalancheagencies,donot
have the resources to provide a variety of different reports.
TheBulletinsdescribeingeneral termstheconditions
prevailing in huge areas, each region comprising up to 50
000km 2 .Has it been successful? Judging by the increase
in use--yes. From 500 direct inquiries in the first winter
to over30 000 last winter.Regular distribution is by a toll
free phone number, a fax network, Internet email and web
page and local phone numbers in Calgary and Vancouver
aswellasvariousnewspapers.'Indirect hits'aremuch
harder to count but include print media, national and re-
gional radio and television--particularly at times of high
danger.
The successin preventingdeathsis even harder to score.
But we do know that there hasbeen a huge increasein the
numberof people venturing into avalanche terrain. How-
ever,therehasnotbeena proportionalincrease inava-
lanche deaths. Let's hope that is in part due to more ava-
lanche information being available.
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OtherProjects
OtherCAAprojectsincludetherecentlycompleted45
minute avalanche searchand rescuevideo called 'Beating
theOdds';the publicationofa new editionof'Observa-
tion Guidelines & RecordingStandards for Weather,Snow-
pack and Avalanches';the complete upgrade of all train-
ingmaterialforthe Schools;and,due outinNovember
1996,the publication of 'AvalancheAccidents in Canada,
Volume4'.Theseprojectshavebeensupportedbythe
National Search and Rescue Secretariat whose mandate is
increasingly in the role of prevention.The Federal Minis-
ter for Defense(also responsible for SAR) in a recentspeech
identified the Canadian Avalanche Association asan ex-
ample of an organization that in today's economic climate
takes the initiative to establish a joint venture in an area
that was previously wholly a government responsibility.
CACAND THE FUTURE
TheCanadian Avalanche Associationdecides the policy
and direction of the CanadianAvalancheCentre The mem-
bership and executive under the current leadership of the
Presidentof the CAA Jack Bennetto have decided on some
importantinitiativesforthefuture.The InformationEx-
change and Schools will continue to grow anddevelop in
response to the needs of the clients. The areas covered by
the AvalancheBulletin will expand as more technical in-
formationbecomesavailablefromregionswheremore
people are traveling. The membership ofthe CAAisde-
veloping standards to maintain continuedcompetenceand
professionalism.Finally,ofincreasingconcernisthe
number of avalancheaccidentsin eastern Canada,last year
40% of fatalities were in Quebec andBaffin Island. A good
challengefor this organization going into the next century.
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