The Haines Borough Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee will discuss buying avalanche safety equipment for public loan and how to increase avalanche awareness, safety and education with the community.
Committee member Scott Sundberg, a former co-owner of a heli-ski company, brought the idea to the group last week. He said he wanted to raise the issue because three people have died in avalanches since last March. Two young men were killed earlier this month in the Haines Pass and another died last March on the backside of Mount Ripinsky. “It’s kind of a red flag to me,” Sundberg said.
Sundberg suggested making winter safety awareness classes available at the school, either as a short-term course or part of the school’s curriculum.
He also suggested partnering with British Columbia First Nations representatives in an effort to increase awareness of weather and terrain conditions using signage near the border. “If we direct funding toward a local avalanche awareness organization and they put it in their bid to maintain that sign since they might be doing the forecast,” Sundberg said, “I think the Canadians could match us on their side.”
Lori Smith brought up Tom Morphet’s suggestion to borough staff and officials that the borough purchase and make available airbags, backpacks that inflate and help reduce the chances of being buried, for public use. He said the borough providing airbags would be similar to providing life jackets at harbor facilities.
“That might be something the community might be willing to buy,” Smith said of the airbags, which cost between $500 and $1,000 each.
“Avalanche forecasting, avalanche awareness and avalanche training are all nice and good and appropriate, but these things save lives, period,” Morphet said of his suggestion to borough officials.
Sundberg said he encourages local businesses to have them available for rent. “They’ve saved my life,” Sundberg said. “I can tell you that.”
Haines Avalanche Center (HAC) director Erik Stevens agrees, and added other safety gear to the list.
“Almost every outdoor shop in Colorado rents beacons,” Stevens said in a separate interview with the CVN. “I really want to see more of that in Haines. I’d like to see rental shops have beacons, shovels and probes. Air bags would be great, if there’s a source of funding to buy a bunch of air bags.”
While gear would help, Stevens said, education, observations and forecasting will help more people overall, and so would directing resources to those three efforts.
HAC has taught optional avalanche courses to students in the past, and teaches certified courses annually. Last weekend it taught an avalanche rescue course to 21 participants. For the past several years the center has received about $5,000 in borough funding, which helps employ about three part-time staff members to make weekly forecasts by using their own and residents’ observations of conditions in the borough and Haines Pass. This year, the Haines Borough Assembly declined to fund the center.
Center director Erik Stevens said last year he had enough money to pay staff, who also volunteered their time, for reliable forecasts on the center website alaskasnow.org/haines-hac. He doesn’t have enough funding this year to keep staff in town throughout the winter.
“(Last year) we were able to commit to three forecasts a week with danger ratings and enough observations to keep those forecasts relevant and fresh and accurate,” Stevens said. “This year we don’t have any committed funding for staff.”
Stevens said that while educating students is a great idea, the whole community needs to be engaged.
“What we really could do is use the infrastructure that the avalanche center has already set up which is forecasting, observations and education,” Stevens said. “Those are the three pillars that people really need to make good decisions in the backcountry.”
School superintendent Roy Getchell said the school board feels a strong need for “Alaska-based skills.” The school recently offered a grant-funded hunter education course for middle schoolers. The school also teaches cold water safety and swim lessons. The school board would have to approve any permanent changes to include winter safety courses as part of the permanent curriculum.
“That would just require some outline and plan,” Getchell said. “You’d present that to the board and it gets approved. I’m confident it would. That would make it an official part of our curriculum as opposed to offering it as an extra.”
Board member and former teacher Tracy Wirak said the board discussed avalanche awareness courses at a safety meeting this week. She said she’d support winter safety as part of the permanent curriculum. “I would definitely support that and I would support there being an avalanche awareness course as a required course either in their classroom or their PE classes that would happen every year.”
Stevens said he’s happy the conversation has started, but wants to make sure any dedicated resources cast a wide net.
“I just want to make sure we don’t throw all of our funding at one of these solutions and leave behind the holistic picture of avalanche safety in our community,” Stevens said.
The committee voted to create a subcommittee to address and further discuss the issue. It meets Jan. 29 at 5:30 p.m. in the assembly chambers.