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Avaluator - avalanche accident prevention card alive!

When in 2003 two deadly avalanches struck in British Columbia 14 people were killed, among them seven kids. Canada received its wake-up call and the public demand for action produced an amazing efforts by the avalanche community. This month, one of the most advanced avalanche tools for general public use was unveiled - the Avaluator. It took three years and $700,000 to develop this unique tool that should be the next step in avalanche accident prevention.

When the project started Canadian avalanche experts and snow scientists knew that an easy-to-use and easy-to-understand accident prevention tool was needed as more and more people poured into backcountry every year. Two experts, Pascal Haegeli and Ian McCammon, that stepped up to face the challenge knew even better.

They knew that there were avalanche accident preventions tools in place in Europe already, so they started to research and review them. Soon they discovered that all of these tools were missing true scientific development approach which would made them more effective and more accurate. They also knew that they have to base their research efforts on mostly North America data since the snow and backcountry skiing and travel habits are quite different here than in Europe.

Pascal and Ian (and their co-workers) went through 1400 avalanche accidents reports and interviewed dozens of avalanche experts over three years in the hunt for the Avaluator Card. "We wanted to learn as much as possible from past mistakes and pass this knowledge on to you. It is our hope that these tools will help you avoid conditions that have injured and killed people in the past," say Pascal and Ian.

The Avaluator Card is designed to help us make some of our most critical decisions before and during our backcountry trips. The card and its accompanying booklet focuses on four key decisions and travel skills:

1. TRIP PLANNING
2. IDENTIFYING AVALANCHE TERRAIN
3. SLOPE EVALUATION
4. GOOD TRAVEL HABITS

In the next few days we will look into how the Avaluator actually works, so don't forget to check back.

Avaluator is a register trade mark of Canadian Avalanche Association.

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