Overview

The Home of Public Avalanche Safety in Canada

The Canadian Avalanche Centre (CAC) is a non-government, not for profit organization dedicated to public avalanche safety. The CAC came into existence in 2004 with the support and collaboration of federal, provincial and private sector agencies involved in avalanche safety.

What do we do? We coordinate public avalanche safety programs, deliver public avalanche awareness and education programs, provide curriculum and support to instructors of recreational avalanche courses, act as a central point-of-contact for avalanche information, and encourage avalanche research.

That's not all. We develop and deliver public avalanche bulletins and special avalanche warnings for many of the mountainous regions of western Canada. We also deliver avalanche bulletins and advisories on behalf of partner agencies and organizations. These services are available to the public free of charge.

How do we do it? The CAC is directed by a board comprised of volunteers. Five members of this board are drawn from the Canadian Avalanche Association (CAA) Board of Directors. One member is appointed from the Canadian Avalanche Foundation Board of Directors, and two more are elected from within the membership of the CAC. We also maintain volunteer working committees in these three areas: avalanche skills training for recreationists, youth avalanche education and snowmobile avalanche safety

Overarching direction for the CAC comes from an advisory panel called the Canadian Avalanche Round Table. The function of this panel is to provide feedback on our performance and provide advice on strategies for a wide range of avalanche safety issues. Round Table members represent the wide variety of avalanche safety stakeholders in Canada and all have a commitment to and an investment in the CAC.

Attached to the right of this page you can find some of the conceptual documents that provide a foundation for the CAC including our By-laws and the CAC 2011-12 Annual Report.