The venue was the Boyce Theatre at Stampede Park, an excellent choice due to its central location, C-Train access, ample parking and proximity to a wicked lunch buffet at the Big 4 Building. My guess is that attendance was pushing 300…not bad.

Here’s a demographic analysis of the audience (these facts and figures were compiled using Tim Bester Crowd Scan Methodology - so don’t use them in your thesis).

The vast majority of the audience were the usual suspects, you know, the fleece and waterproof breathable mountain types. I also noticed a highly visible contingent from the snowmobiling community and if you’ve ever seen a sledneck jacket you know what I mean by “highly visible”. Among the mountain types it’s hard to estimate the breakdown of telemarkers, ATers, boarders, climbers and so on, because, for example, the modern telemarker does a good job of looking like a normal person.

I spotted a couple ski guides I knew in the stands and there were various other professionals in attendance as well. At lunch I was fortunate enough to chat with a retired engineer who had taught at the University of Calgary and had been involved in establishing the snow science branch of that institution’s faculty of Civil Engineering. A fringe benefit of these types of events is that you often bump into interesting cats like that.

Looking at age groups I got the impression that, unfortunately, the twenty-somethings were under-represented. With respect to sex, the female population was very well represented, proportionally speaking… (oops, that didn’t come out quite right).

Evan Manners, Operations Manager of the CAA, was our MC. In his intro he pointed out that the raison d’être for the workshop was to glean some lessons from last winter’s abnormally high number of avalanche accidents and fatalities in Canada and move towards making sure a winter like that never happens again. He indicated that the domestic and international media coverage of the Rogers Pass and SME accidents, in particular, created a “crisis of confidence” (at home and abroad) in Canadian mountain recreation and there were even calls to “close the backcountry” in the interest of public safety.

Doug Chabot, Director of the Gallatin National Forest Avalanche Center in Montana, was the first speaker. Doug’s talk was intended for the snowmobilers (sledding is huge in the States) but the concepts he discussed were certainly applicable to any form of recreation in avalanche terrain. He had some very cool video footage, including a clip of a guy high-marking a gully, who on the decent triggered a spectacular slide that no amount of horsepower was going to outrun (the individual was subsequently extricated and lived to tell the tale). Doug also got the prize for best comedic moment of the day: If your buddy forgets his shovel just say, “No problem man” and give him yours.

Next up was Werner Munter, mountain guide/scientist from the Swiss Federal Institute for Snow & Avalanche Research. I would say that he was the big draw for many in attendance as his “Risk Reduction Method” for skiing in avalanche terrain has received a lot of press lately.

A side note, he is also the inventor of the Munter hitch, a simple knot which eliminates the need for a belay device when climbing. This fact is telling, because Werner Munter is a low tech kind of guy and his avalanche risk reduction system is simple and easy to use. The user makes a few basic field observations and then does a quick calculation to get a ‘go’ or ’no go’ result. The method is being widely used in Switzerland with much success. I can’t remember the exact figures but he presented a graph of avalanche fatalities in Switzerland and in the years after the method was implemented the line goes WAY down.

I’m not going to go into the details, but if you want to learn more about the man and his work search the net on “Munter” and “Risk Reduction Method”, you’ll get plenty of hits. The question is: will such a system work in Canada? (Mr. Munter did present his proposal for a Canadian variation).

François Sivardière from the French National Association for Snow & Avalanche Research kept the Euro thing going with his presentation on NivoTest (‘nivo’ = ‘snow’ in Latin). It’s a pocket-size card his organization has developed to help tourers make route-finding decisions in avalanche terrain. The card has 25 easily answered and scored questions about terrain, weather, snowpack and experience. The score is tabulated on a revolving disc and a description of the risk level for various scores is provided. The questions on the card are very much like the types of things an experienced backcountry traveller thinks about all the time. For more information take a look at meteorisk.com (need to speak French for this one).

Cam Campbell, a grad student from the U of C, did a presentation on a topic that weighs heavily on the mind of every winter backcountry traveller: Spatial Variability. Did you know that if you perform a grid of 200 evenly spaced Rutschblocks on a seemingly uniform slope you won’t always get the same result? But, all kidding aside, he reinforced a point brought up by many of the presenters - snow pits are overrated. Werner Munter stated that the snowpack is a chaotic patchwork and that basing your decisions on strictly scientific methods is a mistake. Cam’s presentation was a bit technical for most of the audience, myself included, but like good Canadians we applauded politely (I think many of us just felt sorry for a guy who had dug that many Rutschblocks when he could have been skiing). More details here.

Dr. Bruce Jamieson from the University of Calgary Avalanche Research Program and former Fernie ski bum (I don’t think he had the title ‘Dr.’ when he was a ski bum) spoke on his vision for a decision support scheme for recreation in avalanche terrain. I got the impression that he would like to see some of the European concepts implemented in Canada. He presented an excellent example of how photographic and colour-coded map data for recreational terrain can make safer route choices much more obvious. That struck a chord with me, I like maps.

Chris Stethem gave an entertaining talk on how human factors enter into decision making for travel in avalanche terrain. You always have to remember that despite any amount of analysis and logic there’s just no telling what those wacky humans will do! Among other things, Chris is the president of the Canadian Avalanche Foundation, a registered charity raising funds in support of the CAA.

Local mountain guide, Grant Statham, did a good job of keeping up the interest level right to the end. Officially his topic was how professionals translate avalanche bulletin information into appropriate terrain choices. He talked about many practical matters but I also found some of his anecdotal comments quite enlightening. He spoke of how even the pros have their moments of doubt and fear and sometimes you’ve got to trust your gut feelings in the mountains.

What I have described here is a general overview of the material presented at the workshop. There was a huge amount of information, from reinforcement of the basics to new ways of looking at the decision-making process while enjoying the mountains in winter.

At the close of the workshop the representatives from the CAA invited comments or suggestions about the event and hinted that future workshops are in the cards. I would highly recommend taking one in if you ever get the chance.

Tim