Avalanche Québec

Avalanche Québec is based in the Chic-Choc Mountains of Québec’s Gaspé Peninsula. The 2019-2020 winter marked the 20th anniversary of the organization, the only centre of expertise in avalanche safety east of the Rockies.

Avalanche Québec is a non-profit organization, with a mission to protect the public, prevent accidents and improve avalanche safety by providing a range of activities and services to raise awareness, inform and educate the population, mainly in Québec.

Avalanche Québec and Avalanche Canada have a long-standing relationship and have collaborated on many initiatives over the years. This season, the first year of a funded national strategy for public avalanche safety in Canada, was an especially important one.

Thanks to this federal funding, Avalanche Quebec is now able to provide daily avalanche bulletins for the Chic-Chocs. This allows the program to comply with the best practices and international standards, to align with Avalanche Canada services level, and to provide superior quality forecasts to the Gaspé backcountry users.

Avalanche Québec has administered the Avalanche Canada Training programs in Québec since 2016. This includes support and supervision to instructors, advertising of courses, and the exclusive sale of course material. Over the past season, 848 students took an avalanche course in Québec, an increase of 5% compared to the previous season and up 51% since the start of this agreement.

The relationship and increased collaboration between Avalanche Canada and Avalanche Québec contributes to the national strategy objective. Together, we aim to provide essential avalanche safety services wherever they are needed across the country, and support Avalanche Canada’s vision to become a truly national public avalanche safety organization.

Translation Projects

One of Avalanche Canada’s goals is to become a truly national organization, providing services in both official languages. As we work towards that goal, we are offering more bilingual services and have been busy translating many of our products into French. This work will help raise our profile and make avalanche awareness more accessible nation-wide. We thank our colleagues at Avalanche Quebec for their invaluable help in this area.

Last fall, we published the French translation of the ski version of our Avalanche Skills Training Handbook, and the snowmobile version of this book will be translated for the 2021 season. Our youth curriculum has also been translated and we were very proud to have it delivered in French over the 2019 - 2020 season.

Thanks to Avalanche Quebec our avalanche and weather glossaries were translated this year, making these great educational resources available in both official languages. They also translated the Dangerator, the tool developed by Avalanche Canada in 2018 to guide users in developing their own danger ratings for regions that don’t receive a daily forecast. Lastly, this annual report will be translated and made available in French on our website.

An Avalanche Quebec field technician inspects a slide deposit on the Mur des Patrouilleurs in the Chic-Choc Mountains. Image: Avalanche Quebec

Skills Exchange

This winter, James Floyer, forecasting program supervisor, and Mark Bender, senior avalanche forecaster, traveled to the Chic-Chocs in Quebec to spend time with our colleagues in eastern Canada. The visit was a great opportunity to become more familiar with how Avalanche Quebec works. James and Mark were able to visit several important recreational areas, see their forecasting operations, and participate in a multi-day Avalanche Awareness Days event. The group also held discussions about how best to deliver avalanche safety programs to Newfoundland & Labrador. It was a valuable visit that further solidified an already great partnership.