Engaging New Users

Reaching out to new backcountry users has always been a priority for us but this year it's even more important, as the backcountry becomes busier than ever. A great deal of our work has been focused on communicating as widely as possible. Our outreach has gone online, with a highly successful webinar series that is reaching hundreds of viewers during each session, while countless more watch the recordings later. We've done media interviews such as this one with The Globe & Mail, and published blog posts with partners.

Now, we're launching Avy Savvy, our new online tutorial that we hope will become the starting point for any recreationists entering the backcountry for the first time this winter.

Pour la version française, cliquez ici.

In this issue:

Avy Savvy Online Tutorial Launched

Avy Savvy, our new online avalanche tutorial is now live and providing a valuable tool for new backcountry users and veterans alike. 

Avy Savvy modernizes our tutorial and aligns the curriculum with our Avalanche Skills Training Handbook, with chapters on avalanche formation, avalanche terrain, the avalanche forecast, trip planning, and companion rescue. Our vision was to create a product that would prepare people for their first forays into winter backcountry recreation and provide a solid foundation for their AST 1 course. It's also a great tool for anyone looking to refresh knowledge.

Built on a new platform, Avy Savvy was a major undertaking that involved collaboration between our IT team, communications group, and forecasters. It features hundreds of photos, videos, quizzes, and exercises designed to help people start their avalanche journey. Among the highlights are:

• Route finding exercises to help people navigate through the mountains.
• Videos explaining the avalanche problems found in the forecasts.
• Exercises created by Simon Fraser University that tests comprehension of the avalanche forecast.
• Animations and videos on companion rescue by Backcountry Learning.

Thank you to K2, BCA, and the Community Foundations of Canada for supporting Avy Savvy.

Party for Powder Success! 

The virtual Party for Powder online auction and prize draw proved to be a resounding hit, raising over $60,000 to support Avalanche Canada safety programs. Many thanks to all the sponsors, auction item donors, ticket donors, and, of course, all the participants who helped make it such a success.

While this is a tremendous outcome, our work is not done. Demand for AvCan programs has increased by magnitudes already this early in the season. The Avalanche Canada Foundation has a new and exciting opportunity, thanks to the generosity of Maggi Thornhill Personal Real Estate Corp. Maggi will match donations during the month of December up to a maximum of $10,000. So donate now to DOUBLE YOUR IMPACT to the Avalanche Canada Foundation.  

New Staff in Newfoundland

Avalanche Canada has more than doubled program funding in Newfoundland & Labrador for this season, thanks to the Government of Canada endowment. This has allowed us to hire a coordinator/field technician and an assistant technician, and begin the process of building more fully fledged public avalanche safety programs in the province. This year’s objectives are to:

• assess public avalanche safety needs;
• build relationships with partners and stakeholders; 
• provide outreach, awareness, and youth education; 
• develop and implement a field data observation program; 
• provide avalanche information to users when necessary; and 
• offer recommendations for future products and services.

This will set the stage for building a sustainable program that meets the long-term needs of the region with guidance from locals. We are very excited about this work and look forward to seeing public avalanche safety programs in Newfoundland & Labrador evolve in the coming years.

BRP/Ski-Doo Sled Loan

Snowmobiles are essential to Avalanche Canada’s public safety programs. They allow our field teams to collect valuable snowpack information and engage with riders in the field, where they recreate.

We are extremely grateful to BRP/Ski-Doo for supporting us this winter by loaning us two BRP Summit 850 snowmobiles for the 2020-21 winter season. These sleds have come to us through Banner Recreation in Vernon, BC.

Having these snowmobiles is even more important than ever as we expect to be sending our forecasters into the field more often to collect data for our forecasts. Thank you BRP.

Forecasts in French

As part of our goal of becoming a truly national organization, Avalanche Canada forecasts are now available in French. Currently, we are translating the key elements of the forecast: the danger ratings, avalanche problem information, and terrain & travel advice. The headline and details page, which are written daily by the forecasters, are not being translated yet, but we are working on a process to translate them automatically and hope to implement it shortly.

To access French forecasts, click on the “settings” icon at the right of the main menu bar on avalanche.ca and switch the language to French. Translated forecasts are currently only available on our website. We will be bringing them to the app in the future.

Snowmobiler Mentorship Program

Avalanche Canada has launched a pilot project to provide mentorship for emerging snowmobile practitioners interested in professional level avalanche training. The project is designed to address some of the challenges they face in accessing mentorship opportunities. Mentees will be able to learn professional skills from Avalanche Canada field technicians and forecasters. Click here for details.

Upcoming Webinars

Our online webinar series has been a huge success so far. More than 800 people attended our webinar on recognizing avalanche terrain and trip preparation and we've had at least 325 viewers for every one of our sessions. Here’s what we’ve got coming up:

• Dec. 10: Choosing terrain for snowmobilers
• Dec. 17: Riding out of bounds—what you need to know
• Dec. 23: To be determined
• Jan. 8–10: Canuck Splitfest

Remember, if you miss a webinar, you can watch the recording later on our website.