Education and Outreach
Avalanche Canada Training Programs The number of students taking an Avalanche Canada Training course surpassed 10,000 for the fourth year in a row, despite an early end to the season caused by the pandemic. Overall, 10,173 people took one of our four courses over the 2019-20 winter, a 13 percent decrease from the previous winter. We expect enrolment would have been similar to 2018-19 if not for the lockdown put in place to curb the spread of Covid-19. We saw a big increase in the number of snowshoers taking an Avalanche Skills Training (AST) course. 639 snowshoers took a course last winter, a 55 per cent increase over the previous year! This jump can be attributed to our fall outreach sessions in Calgary and Vancouver that targeted this group, several course providers marketing directly at snowshoers, and the increase in popularity of the sport. Unfortunately, the number of snowmobilers taking a course was down by 41 per cent. Several factors may be at play here: the Covid-19 lockdown, the struggling oil sector in Alberta and Saskatchewan, and the fact there were no major snowmobile fatalities in the past couple years. We have seen that fatal avalanche incidents drive up enrolment. Avalanche Canada Training is renowned worldwide. There were 180 active, licensed AST providers last season. The majority are Canadian, but our courses are also delivered in Japan, Chile, France, Norway, Spain, Russia and Australia.
AST 1 TEACHES THE FUNDAMENTALS OF AVALANCHE FORMATION, TRAVELLING IN AVALANCHE TERRAIN AND COMPANION RESCUE.
AST 2 INCREASES AND DEVELOPS KNOWLEDGE OF TERRAIN CHOICES, ROUTE FINDING AND DECISION MAKING IN AVALANCHE TERRAIN.
COMPANION RESCUE SKILLS A ONE-DAY COURSE OFFERING AN INTRODUCTION OR REFRESHER ON THE LATEST TECHNIQUES IN AVALANCHE INCIDENT RESPONSE.
MANAGING AVALANCHE TERRAIN A ONE-DAY COURSE FOR AST 1 GRADUATES, AIMED AT DEVELOPING MORE ADVANCED WINTER BACKCOUNTRY TRAVEL SKILLS.
AST 1 Course Participants
AST 2 Course Participants
CRS Course Participants
MAT Course Participants
12,000
1,200
400
200
9,000
900
300
150
6,000
600
200
100
3,000
300
100
50
15-16
16-17
17-18
18-19
Presented by
19-20
15-16
16-17
17-18
18-19
19-20
15-16
16-17
17-18
18-19
19-20
16-17
17-18
18-19
19-20
