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…
Blog Archives
BC Life expectancy highest in Canada
There’s a report from last year that shows that British Columbia’s life expectancy is the highest in Canada. There’s another one today that shows that BC men now lead the world in life expectancy, with women outliving men, but coming in 6th in…
Map of SAR Incidents in BC 2011
My good friend Rick Laing, SAR Manager and member of Ridge Meadows SAR and GIS guru sent me a link to a map he published. It has the locations of all of the SAR teams in BC, and includes all of…
Archived Avalanche Bulletins
I’ve always wondered why the CAA’s web site doesn’t have a link to the archived avalanche bulletins. I could be wrong, but I just can’t find it. It’s not a normal thing to want to go back and look at…
Accidents in Incidents: A review of SAR-related injuries
Any reader of my blog knows I love numbers. Collecting information can tell you a lot of things; it can tell the shape of a problem, whether the problem is big, small or insignificant, and it can define problems that…
Frequency of SAR Incidents
Most SAR teams maintain records of each incident independently from PEP, but even if they didn’t I’m sure they would all agree; there are more SAR incidents in the summer than in the winter. Further, calls come with greater frequency…
Distribution of SAR Incidents in BC
I was at a meeting last night and heard a SAR member state a bald claim that the Southwest region of BC has more incidents than the rest of BC combined. I was pretty sure this was not the case…
Non-Avalanche Related Snow Immersion Death
I was reading a local hiking/mountaineering forum recently when I came across this post detailing a very scary incident that happened to a skier at a local resort. And then I learned a new acronym: NARSID. Now I have never…
SAR Numbers from other Provinces
For years I’ve been told that British Columbia has more SAR incidents than the rest of Canada combined. This sounds hard to believe, as BC has 4 million people (13% of Canada) and only comprises about 10% of the total…
How to NOT kill Yourself Snowshoeing
I remember borrowing a pair of crampons for my first ascent of Mount Baker in 1990, and the advice of the lender. “Make sure these thing fit” he said, “because if they come off and you’re on the ice you’re…
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