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| According to 2002 Canadian Ski and Snowboard industry stats, more than 4.7 million Canadian participate in one or more forms of skiing; downhill, cross country, snowboarding, or a combination of disciplines. |
The statistics also state that downhill skiing accounts for six per cent of injuries, and snowboarding is responsible for five per cent of injuries.
SNOWSMART, a joint project of the Canadian Ski Patrol System, Parks Canada and the Canadian Avalanche Association, is a project of the Smartrisk Foundation that is geared toward active skiers, snowmobilers and snowboarders between the ages of 12 and 24.
Founded in 1992 by Dr. Robert Conn, Smartrisk is a national, non-profit organization dedicated to injury prevention that has created this educational program based on five principles of prevention
The three-year SNOWSMART program, completed in March 2002, increased youth awareness about the dangers and risks of winter activities.
It began because of the number of deaths reported during the height of the winter recreational season, especially of people under the age of 18.
A recent SNOWSMART study indicated that many youths who are winter enthusiasts are not adequately prepared for the risks, nor have any knowledge about detecting or avoiding avalanches and avoiding injury.
Further, SNOWSMART contradicts glamourized images in the media, which show extraordinary feats, but not the danger that can be faced by an inexperienced skier or snowboarder. The SNOWSMART program focuses on doing difficult manoeuvres safely by practicing risk management.
CESM, a project funded by the New Search and Rescue Initiatives Fund, is challenging some of the rules of marine search and rescue.
In the past, searchers would have had to estimate how long a person could last in the water after a plane crash or a boat sinking, and then determine how long to continue searching. With CESM, the survival time can be predicted more precisely. This allows searchers to make a better-informed decision on how long to continue the search, as for example, when CESM was used during the sinking of MV Vanessa in October 1997.
CESM is scientifically based on the physics of heat transfer and on the physiological response to cold. It provides a prediction of survival time based on when the body temperature reaches the threshold of lethal hypothermia. It is a 'living' development that continues to improve with new information. The Fund is supporting future upgrades that will lead to predictions of self-help limitations and probabilities of survival when details of the casualties are unknown.
Two New SAR Initiatives Fund projects were announced in January 2003.
The first, "Safety and Rescue on Ice," is a joint project with
Parks Canada, the Canadian Red Cross, la Sûreté du Québec,
la Fédération québécoise des clubs quads,
la Fédération des clubs de motoneigistes and the National
Search and Rescue Secretariat. The project includes the purchase of specialized
equipment, such as isothermal clothing, cables and boats to improve ice
rescues, which were demonstrated at a news conference in Chambly, Québec.
The three year program will enable training for approximately 900 safety officers, comprised of firefighters and volunteers who patrol waterfront areas with snowmobiles and all-terrain vehicles, in prevention and ice rescue.
The goal of the project is to spread awareness of the dangers of ice, as well as to minimize the risks associated with ice rescue.
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| The Canadian Avalanche Association Training Schools offer many safety courses for industry professionals, including a new one called Avalanche Control Blasting. |
The second project is aimed at sensitizing people to the risks of avalanches in Québec. This project is supported by the Canadian Avalanche Association (CAA), la Sûreté du Québec, Parks Canada, le Centre d'avalanche de la Haute Gaspésie, Environment Canada, la Fédération québécoise de la montagne et de l'escalade, and the New SAR Initiatives Fund.
Since the 1970s, there have been more than 80 avalanche victims in Quebec, with 33 dead and 50 injured. This avalanche awareness program will offer courses on prevention and search and rescue techniques for avalanche-prone areas in the region.
Since 1988, there have been 17 different projects supported by the New Search and Rescue Initiatives Fund aimed at educating people about the dangers of avalanches, designing safety materials, or researching avalanche patterns to better understand when and why they happen.
One such project is the installation of new weather stations in the high-risk avalanche area of Haute Gaspésie, Québec, thanks to the collaboration among Environment Canada, the Centre d'études nordiques of University Laval and the University of Québec in Rimouski.
The Centre d'avalanche de la Haute Gaspésie installed the three weather stations in the Chic-Chocs mountain range of the Gaspe Peninsula during the winter of 2002-2003. The plan is for the stations to become fully operational this summer. There will be two high/mid-elevation remote stations and one valley bottom manual station with computer hardware and software necessary to use, download, forward and manage weather data.
According to Dominic Boucher, coordinator of the Centre d'avalanche de la Haute Gaspésie, the new equipment contributes to the following safety measures and training:
Although avalanches may be unpredictable and catch us by surprise, prevention programs, training and awareness can help mitigate the risks.
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| Glenda Hanna |
The need to ensure that school outings are as safe as possible has been addressed by YouthSafe Outdoors (YSO), a three-year initiative that resulted in the development and distribution of research-based CD-ROM resources. The Alberta-based project, the largest and first of its kind in Canada, is directed at school boards, district administrators, principals, teachers/leaders, parents, and students. YSO has the potential to reduce recreational incidents throughout a lifetime of outdoor activities. It promotes a change in attitude and behaviour that can be spread among friends and family over many years.
The YSO resource is dedicated to the 11 students and one parent chaperone who have died on Alberta school field trips since the project was conceived in 1998. One of the parents, Ann Gray-Elton, who is also a teacher, served on the YSO Steering Committee.
John Rotheisler, President of Search and Rescue Alberta says, "YouthSafe Outdoors Safety First! Guidelines offers the first guidelines for schools in Alberta that are consistent with industry standard in outdoor pursuits activities. Adherence by schools should lead to good trips with minimal potential for incidents requiring callouts of our members or other rescuers such as Parks Canada wardens or RCMP."
The project was managed by Glenda Hanna, Ph.D. (Quest Research and Consulting, Inc.) and sponsored by the New Search and Rescue Initiatives Fund and Emergency Management Alberta, its educational partners (the College of Alberta School Superintendents, the Global, Environmental and Outdoor Education Council of the Alberta Teachers Association and the Alberta Home and School Councils' Association); and its community partners (Search and Rescue Alberta and the Mountain Equipment Co-op). Information on YouthSafe Outdoors is available from www.YouthSafeOutdoors.ca
The 2003-2004 New Search and Rescue Initiatives Fund projects range from programs in secondary schools on the risks of winter sports; expert training for police and volunteers to manage search incidents; and improved infra-red technology to help locate people in conditions such as blinding snow storms and dense woods.
The Honourable John McCallum, Lead Minister for Search and Rescue, approved the projects in March. The Fund, with an annual budget of $8.1 million, supports search and rescue projects that enhance air, marine and ground search and rescue activities in Canada. Since 1988, it has funded over 700 projects at a cost of $120 million.
Projects are reviewed and ranked by a merit board composed of representatives from the National Search and Rescue Secretariat and six federal departments involved in search and rescue: Department of National Defence (Canadian Forces), Department of Fisheries and Oceans (Canadian Coast Guard), Environment Canada (Meteorological Service of Canada), Parks Canada, Solicitor General (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) and Transport Canada, as well as a representative from provincial and territorial search and rescue authorities.
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