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Avalanche Skills Training
Avalanche Skills Training is a standardized form of avalanche training in Canada. Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines an avalanche as a large mass of snow, ice, earth, rock, or other material in swift motion down a mountainside or over a precipice. Although Avalanche Skills Training (AST) is typically learned by backcountry skiers and snowboarders, it is commonly recommended for all people who want to explore the backcountry by snowmobiling, snowshoeing, hiking, and all other backcountry activities. The training is provided in two levels: AST 1 and AST 2. AST 1 includes basic snow study and training on the use of a transceiver, probe and shovel in companion rescue. AST 1 is taught in two parts: a classroom session including lectures, PowerPoints, videos, demonstrations, and group exercises, along with a field session which includes various practices while on the mountain. To move on to AST 2, it is required to complete the AST 1 course. AST 2 concentrates on advanced snow study. AST 2 ...
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Avalanche
An avalanche is a rapid flow of snow down a slope, such as a hill or mountain. Avalanches can be set off spontaneously, by such factors as increased precipitation or snowpack weakening, or by external means such as humans, animals, and earthquakes. Primarily composed of flowing snow and air, large avalanches have the capability to capture and move ice, rocks, and trees. Avalanches occur in two general forms, or combinations thereof: slab avalanches made of tightly packed snow, triggered by a collapse of an underlying weak snow layer, and loose snow avalanches made of looser snow. After being set off, avalanches usually accelerate rapidly and grow in mass and volume as they capture more snow. If an avalanche moves fast enough, some of the snow may mix with the air, forming a powder snow avalanche. Though they appear to share similarities, avalanches are distinct from slush flows, Mudflow, mudslides, Landslide#Debris landslide, rock slides, and serac collapses. They are also ...
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Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by total area. Its southern and western border with the United States, stretching , is the world's longest binational land border. Canada's capital is Ottawa, and its three largest metropolitan areas are Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver. Indigenous peoples have continuously inhabited what is now Canada for thousands of years. Beginning in the 16th century, British and French expeditions explored and later settled along the Atlantic coast. As a consequence of various armed conflicts, France ceded nearly all of its colonies in North America in 1763. In 1867, with the union of three British North American colonies through Confederation, Canada was formed as a federal dominion of four provinces. This began an accretion of provinces and ...
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Avalanche Transceiver
An avalanche transceiver or avalanche beacon is a type of emergency locator beacon, a radio transceiver (a transmitter and receiver in one unit) operating at 457 kHz for the purpose of finding people buried under snow. They are widely carried by skiers, particularly back country skiers for use in case a skier is buried by an avalanche. Before setting out on an expedition, all the members of a group activate their transceivers in the transmit mode, causing the device to emit low-power pulsed radio signals during the trip. Following an avalanche, if some members of the ski party are buried, the others may switch their transceivers from transmit into receive mode, allowing use as a radio direction finding device to search for signals coming from the lost skiers. The avalanche beacon is an active device powered by batteries; a ski suit may also contain a passive RECCO transponder sewn into the clothing. Early avalanche transceivers transmitted at 2.275 kHz. In 1986, ...
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Avalanche
An avalanche is a rapid flow of snow down a slope, such as a hill or mountain. Avalanches can be set off spontaneously, by such factors as increased precipitation or snowpack weakening, or by external means such as humans, animals, and earthquakes. Primarily composed of flowing snow and air, large avalanches have the capability to capture and move ice, rocks, and trees. Avalanches occur in two general forms, or combinations thereof: slab avalanches made of tightly packed snow, triggered by a collapse of an underlying weak snow layer, and loose snow avalanches made of looser snow. After being set off, avalanches usually accelerate rapidly and grow in mass and volume as they capture more snow. If an avalanche moves fast enough, some of the snow may mix with the air, forming a powder snow avalanche. Though they appear to share similarities, avalanches are distinct from slush flows, Mudflow, mudslides, Landslide#Debris landslide, rock slides, and serac collapses. They are also ...
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Avalanche Control
Avalanche control or avalanche defense activities reduce the hazard avalanches pose to human life, activity, and property."Mitigation and Land Use - Avalanches"
, Colorado Geological Survey
Avalanche control begins with a risk assessment conducted by surveying for potential avalanche terrain by identifying geographic features such as vegetation patterns, drainages, and seasonal snow distribution that are indicative of avalanches. From the identified avalanche risks, the hazard is assessed by identifying threatened human geographic features such as roads, ski-hills, and buildings. Avalanche control programs address the avalanche hazard by formulating prevention and mitigation plans, which are then executed during the winter season. The prevention and mitigation plans combine extensive snow pack observation wi ...
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Canadian Avalanche Association
The Canadian Avalanche Association (CAA) is a non-profit organization that supports avalanche practitioners in Canada by organizing professional training courses, providing a system for information exchange and ensures that members meet the highest practise standards to secure confidence in their avalanche safety programs. Being a member of the CAA requires knowledge of evolving avalanche-related sciences, specialized technical training, and extensive operational experience. CAA members serve the public by competently evaluating avalanche hazards and managing risks to protect people and property from avalanches. CAA members may work for ski resorts, industry and transportation (such as mining, highways or railway), or public avalanche safety organizations likAvalanche Canada helicopter, cat or ski/snowboard guiding operations; as avalanche consultants, as instructors of professional or recreational avalanche courses, researchers and more. The CAA's mission is to ensure that its diver ...
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Alpine Club Of Canada
The Alpine Club of Canada (ACC) is an amateur athletic association with its national office in Canmore, Alberta that has been a focal point for Canadian mountaineering since its founding in 1906. The club was co-founded by Arthur Oliver Wheeler, who served as its first president, and Elizabeth Parker, a journalist for the '' Manitoba Free Press''. Byron Harmon, whose 6500+ photographs of the Canadian Rockies in the early 20th century provide the best glimpse of the area at that time, was official photographer to the club at its founding. The club is the leading organization in Canada devoted to climbing, mountain culture, and issues related to alpine pursuits and ecology. It is also the Canadian regulatory organization for climbing competition, sanctioning local, regional and national events, and assembling, coaching and supporting the national team. The ACC is divided into 24 regional sections across Canada that serve local members and focus on local issues and access, linkin ...
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