Canadian Avalanche Association

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The Canadian Avalanche Association (CAA) is a non-profit organization that promotes avalanche awareness and safety. The association provides a variety of services:

Association Services: Administers CAA programs and assets, provides services to members, manages special projects, encourages research, represents Canada to the international avalanche community.
CAA Industry Training Program: ITP offers a full range of training and continuing professional development courses for persons employed or seeking employment in activities where they are required to identify and/or actively manage avalanche hazards. ITP is a private, post-secondary training institution registered pursuant to the Private Post-Secondary Education Act in British Columbia, and the Private Vocational Schools Act in Alberta.
Industry Services: Develops national technical standards, provides products and services for private and public sector operations, provides a national forum for issue resolution.

In addition, the CAA manages the Canadian Avalanche Centre, a national resource for coordinating and delivering public avalanche safety and accident prevention programmes and, most importantly, bulletins on avalanche conditions and ratings.

1 Avalanche Danger Rating
2 Avaluator
- 2.1 Risk Assessment Grid
3 References
4 External links

[edit] Avalanche Danger Rating

The Canadian Avalanche Association uses the following rating system for avalanche bulletins.

Probability and trigger	Degree and distribution of danger	Recommended action in back country
Low (green)	Natural avalanches very unlikely. Human triggered avalanches unlikely. Generally stable snow. Isolated areas of instability.	Travel is generally safe. Normal caution advised.
Moderate (yellow)	Natural avalanches unlikely. Human triggered avalanches possible. Unstable slabs possible on steep terrain.	Use caution in steeper terrain
Considerable (orange)	Natural avalanches possible. Human triggered avalanches probable. Unstable slabs probable on steep terrain.	Be increasingly cautious in steeper terrain.
High (red)	Natural and human triggered avalanches likely. Unstable slabs likely on a variety of aspects and slope angles.	Travel in avalanche terrain is not recommended. Safest travel on windward ridges of lower angle slopes without steeper terrain above.
Extreme (red/black border)	Widespread natural or human triggered avalanches certain. Extremely unstable slabs certain on most aspects and slope angles. Large destructive avalanches possible.	Travel in avalanche terrain should be avoided and travel confined to low angle terrain well away from avalanche path run-outs.

[edit] Avaluator

Avaluator is a card made by the Canadian Avalanche Association to aid avalanche risk assessment and decision making. It provides a "a simple, systematic way of making decisions in avalanche terrain."^[1] The card consists of a grid with the Avalanche Rating on one axis and the Terrain Complexity on the other. The user has to line up the two sets of information to assess the risk and make an informed decision. The card also includes easy accessible information on terrain assesment and safe procedure. The term is a portmanteau of "avalanche" + "evaluator".Over 1400 North American avalanche incidents were studied and avalanche experts were interviewed to form the Avaluator.^[2].