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"I Read the Bulletin. Should I dig?"

This is a report from Bruce Jamieson's excellent presentation discussing how avalanche bulletin advisory can differ from local avalanche situation. It was presented by Bruce at the Backcountry Avalanche Workshop on 19th, November 2005 in Vancouver.

So should you did?

Since the avalanche bulletin is created from one place (Revelstoke) for whole Canada the snow conditions for a specific location can vary. But by making snow assessment tests while on the trip yourself you should be able to apply those two pieces of information into safe decision making.

This means that you should never rely on avalanche bulletins only. Always check the conditions yourself since you might be in an area with a very specific conditions.

Bruce also went on to compare Canada to Switzerland in numbers of avalanche forecast centres compared to the size of the two countries. Canada's (9 976 140 square km) one avalanche centre for the whole country compared to around 30 centres in Switzerland ( 41,295 square km) gives you a pretty good idea of how avalanche bulletin advisory can be different from your local situation.

Then based on a data from numerous years of research and experience Bruce concluded that Canada would benefit much more from increasing the number of avalanche centres than from increasing a frequency of avalanche bulletin. This can definitely help in determining where to money should be spend in the future.

Later in the day Clair Israelson, executive director of Canadian Avalanche Association, informed that Bruce Jamieson's and Pascal Haegeli's contribution to avalanche research have earned them a recognition from the World avalanche community at the recent avalanche workshop in Europe.

Dr. Bruce Jamieson

According to SCHULICH School of Engineering (University of Calgary) website Bruce "has over 24 years of experience spanning avalanche hazard management, hazard assessment, snow and avalanche research, avalanche forecasting and avalanche control." He is focusing "on avalanche research at the University of Calgary and teaching." To find out more about him and his current research interests read more at SCHULICH School of Engineering website.

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