Prince George, B.C.-  With  the recent  tease of snowfall,  sledders are  anxious to hit the high country, and Avalanche Canada  is hoping  they will check  the conditions before heading out.Avalanche forecasting season is now underway.   While forecasts are few and far between this early in the season, Avalanche Canada has added some new features to its forecasting website, and the  one that will likely  be most popular with  folks  in the Prince George region, is  a pilot project called Hot Zone  Reports.

Hot Zone reports will provide information on avalanche conditions and general risk management advice  in the Renshaw and Kakwa regions of the  North Rockies as well as the  Hankin-Evelyn and Telkwa regions of the Northwest Inland.

The site specific  reports will rely on information from the Mountain Information Network which is the  Avalanche Canada  online platform  that allows recreational users to share their backcountry observations.  That information will be supplemented  with data from weather stations and computer models of the snowpack.  There are already reports  from the MIN  about the Shames Mtn region near Terrace  and the  Hankin-Evelyn Telkwa  area.

Avalanche Canada is also  adding more layers of information on the main page of its website ,  starting with  remote weather stations in Kananaskis Country. Clicking on the icon in that region will give users detailed information on snowfall, air temperature, wind speed and direction and relative humidity.  More weather stations will be added to the map  over the season to give  users  easy access to  timely data.

Daily avalanche forecasts are  available at  the Avalanche.ca  website as well as information on  essential safety equipment, training courses and  online resources.

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