I was at the Canadian Avalanche Association AGM/CPD/Trade show in Penticton last week (where I was in fact demoing an early version of my software TrueNorth) and caught a quick look at the Backcountry Access Tracker 3 Avalanche Transceiver. There’s…
Blog Archives
Avalanche Bulletins on a Map
It’s always frustrated me that something so clearly spatial as the Canadian Avalanche Centre’s avalanche bulletins aren’t on a Google map. Based on my recent work on the map of SAR teams in Canada I figured it would only take…
The Autoimmune Expedition
A few years ago, around about the time I started this blog, I was selected with a group of other rescue people to form the helicopter rescue team for the downhill skiing venue at the Vancouver – Whistler 2010 Olympics. That’s…
Tagged with: adventure, avalanche, backcountry, fundraising, mountaineering, ski
Posted in Blog Entry, Essay
Posted in Blog Entry, Essay
Canadian Avalanche Air Bag study
Avalanche Balloon packs, or “Air Bags” (see WildSnow.com for an excellent overview of the current offerings) have been out for a few years, and other than anecdotal evidence, or data compiled by the manufacturers, there hasn’t been a lot of independent and peer reviewed study…
The SnowBe Beacon
There’s an article over on the UnofficialNetworks blog about a new piece of “avalanche safety gear” made by a company called Snow-Beacon. The article, which I encourage you to read for yourself, describes the “SnowBe” as the “THE MOST DANGEROUS…
Discrepancy between Whistler and CAC avalanche reports
I’ve noticed a discrepancy between the Whistler/Blackcomb avalanche report and the one published by the Canadian Avalanche Centre. Since Whistler/Blackcomb doesn’t let me “permalink” to the bulletin, if you read this tomorrow you probably won’t see what I am seeing, so I’ll include…
Beacons vs Transceivers again
It seems that people are still have trouble telling the difference between a “SPOT Beacon” and an “Avalanche Transceiver” I wrote about this last year, based on some comments I heard while attending the CAA‘s Annual conference and AGM. The CAA posted…
Sledder Situational Awareness again
It seems someone else is paying attention to the sledder situational awareness problem, and has come up with a handy tool to help people develop skills and make better decisions. Posted on the SledLink page, the “STOP” tool advises sledders…
CAA AvSAR Course
As I mentioned via twitter, last month I attended the Avalanche Association’s ”Avalanche Search and Rescue (AvSAR) seminar in Whistler, BC. I thought I’d write a bit about the course for any SAR personnel who might be considering sending someone to take it.…
Situational Awareness: Sledder vs Skier
In my last post on this subject I wrote about how skiers have an advantage over sledders in that they have more opportunity to observe conditions as they travel through terrain. Today, some observations on the flip side of the…
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