A Decade Long Focus on SLEDDERS

Right around the time when the vision of Mountain Sledder magazine was first coming to life, there was a shift underway at our national public avalanche safety organization, Avalanche Canada (then known as the Canadian Avalanche Centre).

The number of snowmobilers accessing the mountains had steadily increased in recent years, and with it a disproportionately high rate of avalanche involvements, including fatalities.

Avalanche Canada staff, many of whom at the time came from a ski background, recognized the need to understand how the snowmobiler’s approach to the backcountry is different, and to address the high rate of incidents within our community of riders.

Since that time, Avalanche Canada has accomplished so much by improving access to education, tailoring training materials specifically for the habits of the sledder and further expanding invaluable forecasting services to many more snowmobiling regions.

Avalanche Canada—thanks for all you’ve done! –

MS

BY MARY CLAYTON, AVALANCHE CANADA IMAGES COURTESY OF AVALANCHE CANADA

Ten years of something good is worth celebrating.

Avalanche Canada is happy to join the ranks of other Mountain Sledder readers to say a big congratulations for a decade of dedication to producing a great magazine. Right out of the gate, this publication set a high bar for its look and content, and we’ve always appreciated the commitment to making avalanche safety part of the conversation.

Looking back over the same ten years, it’s instructive to see how far Avalanche Canada has come in our programs working with mountain sledders.

Avalanche Canada Focuses Efforts On Sledders

Back in 2012, we had just launched a three-year project aimed at expanding and improving our snowmobile-specific services. Thanks to this federally funded initiative, we were able to focus our efforts on developing new materials and resources and building technical expertise within the snowmobiling community.

That three-year project got a lot done. Subsidized AST courses for sledders were held in the South and North Rockies, and bursaries were granted to snowmobilers for professional-level training. We created the position of a snowmobile program coordinator who attended and presented at snowmobile shows and conferences in Western Canada and the US. We also collaborated with the Alberta Snowmobile Association to put up billboards advertising avalanche safety on major westbound highways into BC.

And, of course, we made Throttle Decisions. Many readers will be familiar with this video series, highlighting many of the top riders of the time delivering sled-specific avalanche safety lessons, backed up by hard-driving, heavy-metal music. While the soundtrack maybe hasn’t aged so well, the message remains timeless. Throttle Decisions was a big hit for many years, and we were proud to hand out thousands of DVDs. In fact, we still use the footage today to create outreach material.

In 2012, we were also in the middle of a four-year project to map all of BC’s provincially managed snowmobile areas using the Avalanche Terrain Exposure Scale (ATES), which rates the landscape by its potential to produce avalanches. These maps are familiar to all backcountry users today, but back in 2012 the process of rating terrain was an exciting development. By the end of 2014, all of BC’s managed sled areas were fully mapped, and we were able to deliver another tool to help keep sledders safe in the mountains.

It’s interesting to look back and consider how much our own sled use has increased over the past ten years. Our forecasting model is based on a centralized team analyzing data submitted by third parties. The winter of 2011-12 marked an evolution in that model, when we deployed our first field teams in the South Rockies of BC/Alberta and in the Yukon. These teams relied on snowmobiles to collect weather, snowpack and avalanche observation data in their regions, which was then submitted to our central forecasting team to help develop the local forecasts.

That year, we were grateful to BRP for loaning us a mountain sled, and to Yamaha for facilitating our purchase of one. Snowmobiles were crucial to the success of our field teams, so we very much appreciated the long-time support of the International Snowmobile Manufacturers Association. ISMA enabled a ‘loaner sled’ program from all four major manufacturers for many years. It’s fair to say that without ISMA’s help, the growth of our field teams would have been significantly limited.

We were also grateful to the support and fundraising efforts from many individual sled clubs, including Revelstoke, Crowfoot Mountain, Fernie, Blue River, Coquihalla, Merritt, Enderby, Smithers, Grande Prairie and Valemount. Team Thunderstruck was also a great supporter, targeting us in their consistently successful annual fundraisers. Our relationships with the BC Snowmobile Federation, the Alberta Snowmobile Association and the Saskatchewan Snowmobile Association are very important as well, and we’ve appreciated their guidance and input.

Generous support for our programs came from many different corners of the snowmobiling community over this past decade. The district of Tumbler Ridge donated a decommissioned truck from their fire department, and a resident of Tumbler Ridge donated a custom-built sled trailer in memory of a friend who had died in an avalanche. In Grande Prairie, three dedicated mountain sledders organized fundraisers to help us improve the safety program in their area. And in 2018, we received two brand new sleds to help us in our operations, each donated by groups in the snowmobiling community that wanted to make a difference. The retail value of those sleds was almost $35,000, but the value to our field programs was immeasurable.

Riders knew we were facing many growth issues over the 2010s. The need for our services was exploding, along with the use of the winter backcountry, but lack of stable funding meant we struggled to keep up. The North Rockies region was the poster child for that struggle, and one of our top priorities for many years. With its large user base, a history of fatalities and a lack of data to create a forecast, this region was too often a perfect storm of tragedy.

We used a variety of tactics to do what we could for backcountry users in the North Rockies, and in northern BC in general. The Mountain Information Network (MIN) was launched in 2014, allowing backcountry users to share real-time observations. One of our early projects was the Hot Zone Reports. These were issued when we had sufficient MIN data, along with other information from our emerging snowpack modelling program. These site-specific reports contained critical snowpack and weather information, along with general risk management advice.

Throughout the season, any backcountry user can contribute to or access the MIN snowpack and avalanche reports that can easily be found on the Avalanche Canada app or website.

Finally, in 2020, we received a one-time grant from the federal government that allowed us to make a significant expansion. We re-established a field team in the Yukon (which had gone dormant due to lack of funding) and established a new team in the North Rockies. Today we provide daily forecasts for both these regions, something we could have only dreamed of ten years ago.

In 2021, the Government of BC announced funding that allowed us to expand our field team program again, establishing new teams on Vancouver Island and in Smithers, BC. We now have six field teams—five based in BC and one in Newfoundland—and each team uses mountain sleds in their daily operations.

We could not have predicted just how much our sled use would increase over these past ten years or how strongly our ties to the snowmobiling community would grow. We now own a fleet of mountain sleds, trucks and sled decks, and snowmobiling skills are an essential ability for field teams and forecasters. Our teams logged close to 1200 days on snowmobiles last winter, and much of our social media content highlights our sled use.

Effective engagement with the sledding community is one of our top priorities. We have had a snowmobile outreach coordinator since 2011 and we’ve had a snowmobile committee since 2009. We are grateful for the input we receive through these channels, which continually helps shape and focus our programs to better serve sledders.

It’s been quite the ride! We like to think we’ve aged as well as this magazine; and just like Mountain Sledder, we’re looking forward to the next decade of adventure.

ALBERTA

Acheson

Cycle Works West/ Acheson

780.960.1920 cycleworksacheson.com

Barrhead

CC Cycle (2012) Ltd.

780.674.5414 cccycle.ca

Brooks

A & E Racing

403.362.6401 aeracing.com

Calgary

Basecamp Motosports

403.441.1299 basecampmotorsports.com

Blackfoot Direct

403.214.2850 bfdmoto.com

Cycle Works Calgary

403.230.1920 cycleworks.com

Martin Motor Sports

403.301.0096 martinmotorsports.ca

Ralph’s Motorsports

403.291.4868 ralphsmotorsports.com

Cochrane

Bow Ridge Sports

403.932.2019 bowridgesports.com

Mountain Toys

403.932.4828 mountaintoyspolaris.com

Eckville

Rainy Creek Powersports

403.746.5000 rainycreekpowersports.com

Edmonton

Argyll Motor Sports

780.435.6811 argyllmotorsports.com

Cycle Works Edmonton

780.440.3200 cycleworksedmonton.com

Martin Motor Sports (South)

780.438.2484 martinmotorsports.ca

Martin Motor Sports (West)

780.481.4000 martinmotorsports.ca

Riverside Motosports

780.458.7272 rideriverside.com

Edson

Freedom Powersports

Edson Ltd.

780.723.4533 freedompowersports.ca

Riderz

780.723.5775 riderz.ca

Gibbons

Gibbons Motor Toys

780.923.3796 gibbonsmotortoys.com

Grande Prairie

Red-Line Powercraft

780.532.4313 red-linepowercraft.com

Stojans 780.538.2934 stojans.com

Lloydminster

Lethal Motorsports & Marine

780.872.5800 lethalmotorsports.ca

Peace River

Maximum Powersports

780.624.8952 maximumpowersports.com

Thomas Homes & RV Center

780.624.2720 thomasbrp.com

Red Deer Turple Bros. Ltd

403.346.5238 turplebros.ca

Rocky Mountain House Riderz Rocky

403.845.2421 riderz.ca

Slave Lake

Grizzly Ridge Honda & Skidoo

780.849.3514 grizzlyridgehonda.com

Spruce Grove

Specialty Motorsports

780.960.0571 specialtymotorsports.ca

Stettler County

Heartland Marine

403.742.4447 heartlandmarine.ca

Sundre

Mountain’s Edge Cycle & Sled

403.638.3885 mountainsedgecycleandsled.com