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I'm doing some avalanche forecasting work at the
Canadian Avalanche Centre and we are setting up a new forecast region in the
David Thompson area on the east slope of the Alberta Rockies. The region is
described as follows:
The Rocky
Mountains between the
Alberta/BC boundary and the Forestry Trunk
Road, north of the
Red Deer
River. The northern
boundary goes east on the Cline River, north on the height of land between Coral
and McDonald Creeks, east through Coral Lake to the confluence of the Bighorn
River and Sunkay Creek, then parallel to highway 11 through Shunda Creek, and
then encircles Nordegg.
Users in this area will mostly be sledders and ice climbers. There's
probably a bit of mountaineering going on and maybe some ski touring in the
western reaches of the region. There have been at least three fatalities in the
area in recent years so we feel it's important to provide some information to
these user groups.
We need data. There are some remote sensing stations, a couple of forestry
workers, and one local guiding outfit/mountain school in the region, but
the data stream is pretty thin.
If anyone is in this area, we'd appreciate your taking the time to send us
some information. ACMG members can post to informalex or MCR and we'll get
the info. Others can post info online by going to www.avalanche.ca then clicking on
"Discussion" and posting in the "Central Rockies" forum. You can also send an
email to forecaster@xxxxxxxxxxxx or
phone the CAC office at 250-837-2435 and ask to speak to a forecaster. We
could use information about weather conditions, avalanche activity, and snowpack
observations. Formal/profession or informal/recreational obs are all of use
and interest to us. In addition, if you are familiar with the area and know a
good source for mountain/technical weather forecasts, we'd love to hear from
you. Other than public forecasts for Nordegg we are not aware of any winter
weather forecast products for this region.
If you often visit the area or are a local, call us if you are willing to
become a regular observer.
You can check out the David Thompson region report at www.avalanche.ca in the "Bulletins" area.
While there, you can sign up to get the David Thompson report by email: look on
the left side of the page and click on the "Subscribe to Email" link. If you'd
like to have the report faxed to you, call 250-837-2435 and give us your
fax number.
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