Moderator. Geoff Freer

KEYWORDS: avalanche, avalanche education, avalanche countermeasures

MODERN AVALANCHE EDUCATIONA Panel Discussion

Common curriculum/manage from a centrallocation

Who will take the lead to coordinate avalancheeducation? For example, in United States, ifsomeone doesn't take the lead, various groupswill start their own programs. There needs to bea coordinated approach.

How do we find the time, energy, money, andvolunteers.

Funding

How do we educate the media?

Measuring improvement or some kind of index.

1.2 Challenges

Geoff Freer is with British ColumbiaMinistry of Transportation and Highways. He saysthat education is the key to reducing avalancheincidents in the long term.

1. INTRODUCTION (Geoff Freer)

GOAL: Increase our level of excitement about avalanche education so we can do a better job by sharingnew ideas and techniques that address changing populations.

Panelists: Doug Abromeit, Jill Fredston, Magnus Magnusson, Yasuaki Noguchi,Ian Owens, Jurg Schweizer, Francois Sivardiere, Randy Stevens

1.1 IssuesLet's find out what has been done

successfully or unsuccessfully in the past andmake sure that the next generation is beingeducated for the future. The target audience foravalanche education has been changing in many .places. We can save money by sharingexperiences, processes, and methods.

We need to make sure information learned fromthis ISSW is taken back and shared with peers,with others in the field, and incorporated into thecourses we teach.

Increasing the number of programs available

Marketing departments of various skiareaslindustries, and from manufacturers

~- Reaching kids in school. They are trying to do all,~, the things they see in magaZines.

How do you reach recreationalists in largernumbers?

How to best utilize cyberspace

Encourage ski areas and agencies to incorporateeducation in their public relations programs.

How do you reach smaller communities wherethere are no avalanche experts?

How do we educate railways and others that donot perceive a problem? Perhaps we can educateand present concerns through our associations.

2. USDA FOREST SERVICE (Doug Abromeit)

Doug Abromeit manages the USDAForest Service, National Avalanche Center inMoscow, Idaho. He describes the role of theUSDA Forest Service in avalanche education.

Instructors. We spend a lot of time in NorthAmerica talking about instructor standards, whoshould instruct, who should not instruct. Shouldwe always have the highest quality instructorseven if it means not contacting so many people?

2.1 MoneyThe public is hungry for avalanche

awareness classes. How can we get thisinformation to them? There are talented,concerned people out there teaching avalanche

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classes, producing videos, and writing books.Unfortunately, much ofthis work goes unpaid. Thegovemment used to be able to fund these types ofprograms. The Forest Service recently hasrenewed its recognition and interest in avalancheeducation, and avalanche forecast centers. Theyhave not provided additional funds, but havehelped the avalanche centers promotepartnerships and encouraged them to pursuethese partnershipswith the ski, snowboarding, andsnowmobiling industries and through corporatesponsors.

This coming winter, the Forest Servicewill broadcast avalanche forecasts in Seattle,Denver, and Salt Lake City metro areas, and selladvertisements with these broadcasts withproceeds returning to the avalanche centers andtheir education projects. There are plans toexpand this project the following winter. Themarketing firm working on this project estimatesthey can generate $200,000-250,000 per year. Ifit works, it will allow forecasters to forecast andteach avalanche forecasting, and spend less timeraising money. They will also be pursingcorporate sponsors for specific projects (videos,etc)

2.2 EducationSun Valley Avalanche Center Project is

developing an avalanche box for children, full ofeducational materials and props (slide shows,hands on, shovels, beacons, drawings, descriptivematerials) and pattemed after Forest ServiceWildemess Education boxes. The Forest Serviceis trying to get these boxes to science teachers incentral Idaho, and then expand the program. TheSun Valley Avalanche Center received a smallanonymous grant to pursue this idea. Doug thinksspecific projects like this are good fund-raisingtools, because companies and individuals like toknow where their money is going specifically.

3. ALASKA (Jill Fredston)

Jill Fredston operates the MountainSafety Center in Anchorage, Alaska. In Alaska,their target group for avalanche education is thepeople who are getting caught in avalanches,primarily backcountry users. The skill levels ofthisgroup have changed over the years. Twentyyears ago it was very experienced climbers(guides) who were caught. Over time the skilllevel of climbers who are caught in avalancheshas decreased. Also, now it is oftensnowmobilers, again those users with high skill

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levels, who are getting caught in avalanches, butthe skill level of this group is expected to alsochange.

Jill thinks it is important to avoidstereotyping groups. The information you presentis pretty much the same, though you may tailorslides, etc. to be relevant to a particular group ofusers. Their target group is changing to inclUdereal estate professionals, homeowners, and civicplanners.

When they design training, they begin byidentifying objectives. With advancing skill levelsit is important to do field training with smallteacher/student ratios to effectively teach thisgroup. If increasing avalanche awareness is yourgoal, more people can be taught at one time.

The Mountain Safety Center does mu/ti­day workshops in all of their training. Also, theydo specific snowmachiner field training. They tryto build in to their curriculum the element ofdiscovery and make the training participatory andteach concepts ratherthan rules ofthumb to avoidregional biases. They try to keep all informationrelevant to the needs of the stUdents.

They find that pre-course work is reallyhelpful because it gets people thinking aboutavalanches before they arrive for the class. Theyuse scenarios, small group problem-solving, firsthand accounts on audio tapes, videos, slides, etc.as a means of teaching skills because peoplelearn in different ways. They try to teach byexample and make limitations of the trainingclear. They emphasize making decisions oncollection of key pieces of data, and encouragethe use of an avalanche hazard checklist to assistdecisionmaking. This takes the subjectivity out ofdecisionmaking. People are taught how to listento the message and to understand the data theyare seeing.

3.1 Primary Obstacles to Avalanche EducationThere is a shortage ofqualified avalanche

instructors. Jill thinks there is a tendency to thinkthat good avalanche specialistslworkers are goodavalanche instructors, and vice versa. Someways to build this instructor pool are exchanges,mentor programs, and cyberspace. Also we needto make education more widely available. Morefunding would help. Educational messages canbe incorporated into school curriculum, and alsothe outdoor industry. There is no lack of publicinterest in Alaska but educating the media isimportant because the myths about avalanchescan be perpetuated there. Fact sheets have beenuseful to counteract that misinformation and keymedia should be involved.

4. ICELAND (Magnus Magnusson)

Magnus Magnusson headsthe avalancheinformation and forecasting office at the IcelandicMeteorological Office. Iceland has avalancheeducation programs but these are currently notvery comprehensive. They have a selecteducation program that focuses on rescue teamsbecause it is common for outdoor users in Icelandto belong to rescue teams. After 1995, theybegan to increase awareness of avalancheeducation outside of that limited sphere, andbegan sending people abroad to leam more.

For this discussion, however, Magnusfocused on the education ofVillagers and farmers,a group that suffers fatalities but that has receivedvery little avalanche education. He presented agraph showing the fatalities in these targetpopulations since 1600 - Villagers, farmers, and"travellers" (exclusive of recreational travel).Information targeted to farmers and villagers hasbeen limited to a 30 minute video, shown whenthe weather is bad, and it transmits routineinformation

Magnus's main question to the groupwas,"How can we educate the people who are exposedto avalanche danger in their everyday life?"Putting themselves in danger is not a choice theymake. These are people are exposed to thedanger in their homes. Repeated and extendedevacuations of these villages seriously affect thepeople psychologically and they have begun tomove away. His feeling is that better knowledgeof the level of danger will help them cope with thesituation. The avalanche danger exists 10-40days out of the year. What, and how, can weeducate these people? What groups do wetarget? Do we go into kindergarten or otherschools and tell them about what an avalancheis?

The Icelandic avalanche office getsphone calls in the middle of the night from peoplewho are scared because it is snowing outside.How can he alleviate their fears?

5. JAPAN (yasuaki Noguchi)

Yasuaki Noguchi is a research scientist atthe National Research Institute for Earth SCienceand Disaster Prevention. The number ofavalanche-related deaths in Japan in the last 100years was 5000, so there is a very seriousproblem in Japan. There has never been muchinterest in avalanche education, however.

Researchers must do something. Yasuaki willintroduce such a challenge in Japan.

He showed a 'slide of an avalanchesimulation experiment with people and ping pongballs. It consists of two parts - scientific andeducation. Beginning with 5 people and balls, onevanishes down the chute and is the world's firstvictim of a pingpong avalanche.

Yasuaki also demonstrated a hand heldavalanche simulator as an educational tool. Itconsists of an enclosed plexiglass square tube oftiny glass beads in a fluid. As you tilt the tube thebeads simulate avalanche motion. He also has avery small version of this tube as a smallscientific toy. Avalanche education can beassisted with such tools.

In Japan, there are a few avalancheeducation courses, but not enough. TheJapanese Society of Snow and Ice puts on thiseducation, and they have three kinds of classes­one for climbers, one for the general pUblic, andone for Japanese Association for Mountaineering.They are not so perfect because they are only 1-2days long, and have only 2-3 instructors.Unfortunately, the avalanche instructors are notparticipating at this ISSW, or they could providemuch more detail about the education program.

6. NEW ZEALAND (Ian Owens)

Ian Owens is a professor in theGeography Department at University ofCanterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand. Hesays that New Zealanders do not live in the snowzones. They only travel in avalanche areas onone public highway, and so most of the fatalitiesare a result of playing in the mountains; oftenmountaineers. There has been one avalanchefatality resulting from heliskiing in New Zealand.

To date, there have been nosnowboarders killed, and there isn't muchsnowmobiling in New Zealand mainly becausethere is no snow on the flatter valley bottoms.Avalanche fatalities are increasing, though theaverage is still somewhat less than 2 a year.When they did introduce a serious avalanchesafety course, however, the number of fatalitiesdeclined but then rose again. There has alsobeen an increase in incidents on ski slopes,mainly of those working on ski slopes. During theperiod 1981-1996, 60% to 75% of avalanchesfatalities are related to climbing and about % ofnon-fatal involvement were ski related (rescuesbeing more likely).

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In 1978, Ed LaChapelle set up the firstproper avalanche course in New Zealand. Thiseducation has been carried on from there to acertain extent. They imported Canada'savalanche training scheme in the mid-1980s andnow conduct two levels of professional courses,include avalanche education in components ofclimbing courses, and the New Zealand MountainSafety Council (NZMSC) conducts AvalancheAwareness courses with 300-600 people eachyear.

Innovations include actively promoting thedevelopment and use of slide sets. No videoshave been produced but they have access tovideos made by others. Also, a recreationalcourse has been added.

They have already had snowboardersattending their courses, and have had instructorswho were on snowboards as well.

7. SWITZERLAND (Jurg Schweizer)

Jurg Schweizer is a research scientist withthe Swiss Federal Institute for Snow andAvalanche Research in Davos. He began byshowing a graph of fatalities of 31 years ofavalanche fatalities in the Swiss Alps. In the 60sand 70s, quite a number of people were beingkilled in their houses. Now, in the 80s and 90s,most of the fatalities are recreationalists. Inbackcountry ski areas, between 20-40 percent ofrecreationists are out-of-bounds skiers, and mostare snowboarders.

They have seen a successful project lastwinter, cooperating with the snowboard schoolthat offered avalanche awareness course, called"Basics of Powder - the Free Ride." They

,~ educated about 150 snowboarders through that,~:>" program.

Avalanche education is given mostly bySwiss alpine clubs and other organizations.During the last 15 years the avalanche bulletin isbeing integreated into courses as the main sourceof information. Also, human factors have beenincluded in the curriculum and formalizing thecurriculum has taken place.

8. FRANCE (Franc;ois Sivardiere)

Franc;ois Sivardiere is director of theNational Association for the Study of Snow andAvalanches (ANENA) in Grenoble. In France,over a 25 year period they averaged 30 peoplekilled by avalanches each year. Two kinds of

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public are involved in these accidents ­backcountry skiers and out-of-bounds skiers. Thebackcountry skiers are'more or less aware ofavalanche dangers, but out of bounds skiers arealmost not aware at all.

For those who are aware, ANENA tries totell them how to avoid avalanches. For those whoare not aware, they try to make them aware of theproblem.

Concerning public education, the firstgroup of concern is the new practitioners whohave no experience and who are increasinglyinvolved in avalanche accidents - snowboardersand snowshoers. The second concern is thatmany who go in to the mountains are hard toreach. Those who belong to a club are easy toreach, but most of the snowboarders andsnowshoers are not.

To transmit information, ANENA hasbooks, slide sets, videos, and a web site. They doas many conferences as possible, and offer asmany training courses as possible (usually theylast about 2 days). To reach the general public,they try to get articles in the newspaper and onradio. Since last year, they have begun tosponsor an education conference for people whowork in ski and snow shops to help them educatepeople who buy or rent.

Main problems are:

1) Lack offunds.

2) Media writing incorrect information.They try to inform then, and write somepapers for them.

3) Non-French speaking people visiting.In some years, this group representsabout 50% of total fatalities.

9. CANADA (Randy Stevens)

Randy Stevens is with the CanadianAvalanche Association in Rossland, BritishColumbia. Randy began with a rundown on whatthey are doing in Canada, and the challenges theyare facing. He showed a graphic of accidentsstatistics for the past fIVe years. The big problemseems to be inpackcountry use with a dramaticincrease in snowmobile accidents. The averagenumber of fatalities per year is rising. This resultsfrom increase in backcountry use.

Avalanche fatalities in Canada occurmostfrequently in the popUlated mountainous areas of

the country, specifically in southern Britishcolumbia and Alberta, although they have seenan increase in accidents in the north, as well asQuebec and the Atlantic Provinces. Avalancheaccidents related to industry - buildings, on roads,and worksites - are going down, and those relatedto recreational activities are increasing.

Avalanche education in Canada got goingin 1971 with the first professional course designedfor people interested in working in the avalancheindustry. That grew into the Canadian AvalancheTraining School. Out of that came people whoknew about avalanches, but there was noestablished standard for recreational avalanchesafety training. The technical courses didn't teachdecision making skills for recreational use.

There appeared to be a need to come upwith guidelines for recreational avalanche safetytraining courses. The Canadian Ski PatrofSystem (CSPS) and the Canadian AvalancheAssociation partnered to set guidelines. Thesecourses would be delivered by private industrywith guidelines set by the Canadian AvalancheAssociation as an "avalanche course in a box"

Problems presented themselves in thearea of maintaining instructor quality.

In eastem Canada, it seems therecreational program (ROC) is more appropriatefor the needs in eastem Canada. There are twolevels - introductory and advanced - that will beput in place in that part of the country.

Of the 22 fatalities last year, 6 wereteenagers, indicating a problem in educatingyouth. A pilot project was put together by CSPSto increase awareness in the schools. Last yearthey reached 3000 high school students with a 1­hour lecture. This will be incorporated into the"Smart Risk" program called ·Snow Smart", aswell as into the 1Dill grade physical educationcurriculum.

BC Highways has a great trainingprogram, and are leaders in industrial avalanchesafety education.

10. QUESTIONS AND COMMENTS

Q. (To Magnus) If you want to reach thecommunities as a whole, you have to start withthe kids.

A. Perhaps avalanche education boxes,like those from the Sun Valley AvalancheEducation Center, would help awareness.What do you do with village elders?They often downplay the danger because

news of this could have a seriouseconomic impact to a village.

Comment: A lot of school systems get a weeklyreader such as Ranger Rick. Those types ofmagazines are always looking for information togo into those readers. Perhaps we could write forthose.

Q. (To Magnus) The information you are lookingfor is much different than simply avalancheawareness education. If he were a villager inIceland, he would be more interested in knowingwhere his house is on a hazard map, and what theimpacts would be on his family. Perhapsavalanche education there should emphasizewhat people can do to minimize their risk.

A. He agrees. It is also a question ofgoing through a generation of avalancheeducation. The concept of buildinghomes with a "bunker in the basement,"like the Swiss, has come up, and theresponsible authorities need to beeducated about such possibilities. TheArchitectural Society of Iceland raisedserious doubts if the avalanche defensestructures are necessary; they say thevillages should just be evacuated. Wemust educate them and tell them this isnot so easy. There will be accidents inforecasting, and mistakes will be made.The psychological effect of evacuation isserious to the population.

Comment: It seems like there are similarities anddifferences between the nations. Would it bepossible for this group to get together before theend ofthe conference and summarize its thoughtsinto a few statements or advice to the avalancheeducators around the world? He isn't sure this ispossible, but it would be a good opportunity.

Comment: What stuns her is the lack of classmaterials in educating about avalanches. Shewants better pictures and diagrams like the onesshe saw up here. She thinks she can do a serviceby just teaching the basics. If she as an instructorcan have access to these materials, she can do abetter job.

Comment: Three years ago they instituted a pilotavalanche education program in Pinedale,Wyoming in the science classes. It has proven tobe a valuable way of exposing young people in amountain community to avalanche awareness ­kids approaching the high hazard group. Doug

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might want to consider the packets, and addressit not just to elementary, but also to secondarystudents.

Comment: On education part, you might teachyoung people to view avalanches as a naturaloccurrence and not just "white death".

Comment: He was involved with backcountryskiing and snowboarding publications. They ranan education piece with each issue, a Q and A

. session. Bruce Tremper provided the introductionand information. Maybe it would be possible forlocal avalanche experts to be involved with localand regional newspapers. Educate people andthe media at the same time.

Comment: It was mentioned earlier that the filmsshown with skiers (with safety gear) could helpeducate people. Perhaps we can reach the shoppeople by having AAAP attend the national tradeshows. He thinks they could obtain space for free.Convince them that avalanche awareness is agood thing for their business.

Q. AAAP he believes has an educationcommittee. Are they dealing with these issuesand questions in an effective manner?

A. (Jill) It is in the works. It has hadpeaks and valleys over the years ­qualified instructors, course content to bediscussed further in the Association.

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11. CLOSING REMARKS (Geoff Freer)

Interest has been high and there havebeen a number of excellent suggestions andcomments brought forward in this session. Inorder to move forward we could consider thehaving a entire half day education session at thenext ISSW that could include some of thefollowing:

summary of examples of actual courseoutlines and materials,

a summary of different types of courses(recreational vs industry),

educational tools, and

presentation of instructor standards fromdifferent areas.