The American Avalanche Association hosted the second installment in its online seminar series on Thursday, December 10, 2020, featuring topics related to avalanche safety technology.
Approximately 300 people tuned in to hear speakers Pascal Haegeli of Simon Fraser University discuss avalanche airbags, Daniel “Howie” Howlett of RECCO talk about RECCO technologies, and A3 board member Jonathan Shefftz present about avalanche transceivers. Those in attendance may recall that we had some technical difficulties during Mr. Howlett’s presentation. Howie was kind enough to re-record it, and the recording that accompanies this article features that clean version of the RECCO presentation.
The next installment in the series will take place on January 14, 2021 at 6:30 PM MST and will be highlighting connections between avalanches and climate change. The seminar will feature presentations from three different speakers:
- Ben Hatchett, Assistant Research Professor, Atmospheric Science, at the Desert Research Institute at the University of Nevada Reno will present on the theme of climate/weather linkage trends in the western US and associations with loading by atmospheric river events, which are projected to become stronger in a warming climate.
- Christoph Mitterer, researcher and forecaster with the Avalanche Warning Service Tyrol in Innsbruck, Austria and the University of Innsbruck, will discuss wet snow avalanches (and avalanches in general) in a changing climate, and
- Bret Shandro, engineer and avalanche technician with 6 Point Engineering out of Nelson, BC, Canada, will present research completed with Pascal Haegeli and Patik Mair using a new approach that uses avalanche problem information published in public avalanche bulletings, for gaining insight into the relationship between atmosphere-ocean oscillations and avalanche hazard in western Canada
The seminar is free to all. A3 members should stay tuned to their emails for details and log-in credentials.
Check out the first seminar in our series.
Photo credit: Alex Lange via Unsplash
