Avalanche funding stretched
Posted Mar 18, 2010 4:07 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The Canadian Avalanche Centre says it needs more sustainable funding to try to prevent the kind of tragedies that struck a snowmobiling event near Revelstoke last weekend.
Executive Director Ian Tomm tells 660News advances in technology are allowing sledders to get into dangerous terrain.
That’s putting pressure on the centre’s limited resources.
“We’ve had to bring in other staff to make sure that our public avalanche warning services maintain a high level of service and a high level of quality because the public relies on them. At the same time we have to deal with the aftermath of these accidents and its causing a toll and for the second year in a row we are running a deficit.”
He says with a growing number of people using the backcountry, the need for Canadian Avalanche Centre services is only going to rise.
Two Calgary-area men were killed and about 30 others hurt when a slide came crashing down as people watched a high-marking snowmobile competition last weekend near Revelstoke.
The risk of slides right now is still very high to considerable in most alpine recreation areas of Alberta and B.C.
For the latest go to http://www.avalanche.ca/cac/bulletins/regions
