ABSTRACT: Snow avalanche hazards and management in Canada: Progress and challenges.

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Impacts : Canada experiences at least 1.5 million potentially destructive avalanches per year but many occur away from popular recreational or developed areas. Only about 100 avalanches per year are reported to involve people or property. Canada has experienced over 600 fatalities since the mid 1800’s. The activity of avalanche victims has shifted from primarily transportation workers in the 1800’s to primarily recreationists in the late 1900’s. The direct economic losses associated with avalanches in the 1990’s total roughly C$40M per year. Progress : As a result of professional avalanche forecasting and explosive control programs for transportation corridors and lift-based ski areas, avalanche fatalities in these areas are now uncommon. Since 1980, research programs in Canada have made important contributions to avalanche formation, spontaneous and human triggered avalanche initiation, statistical avalanche runout, field tests for stability evaluation and avalanche forecasting. The Canadian Avalanche Centre which started in 1992 exchanges daily technical information between over 50 avalanche safety programs, trains avalanche professionals, develops avalanche safety books and videos, and provides avalanche bulletins to backcountry users twice a week. Because of ongoing problems raising funds for the public bulletin, a charitable organization called the Canadian Avalanche Foundation was formed in 1999. Challenges : Canada has no national or provincial standards for zoning of residential and public buildings. This creates problems for local jurisdictions, land developers, consultants and ultimately for people living in and near avalanche areas. Avalanche hazard mapping is challenged by short historical records, uncertainty relating avalanche runout to return intervals, and limited techniques for short slopes (< 250 m in height). Due to spatial variability of snowpack properties and practical limitations on explosive avalanche control for large areas of operation, backcountry ski operations continue to face an ongoing challenge managing avalanche risk.

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