Avalanche Rescue Training System Opening at Snowbird
Free Rescue Training Center Will Improve Skills of Public, Professionals
Snowbird, Utah - North America’s first fully automated avalanche rescue
training facility simulating single and multiple buried avalanche victims
will open soon in Little Cottonwood Canyon.
The Rescue Training Center, which will open Thursday, Dec. 9, at 10 a.m.,
will be open and free to the public throughout the winter. It will be
located on Snowbird Ski & Summer Resort property near Wasatch Powderbird
Guides and will include a control panel and buried transmitters to simulate
avalanche victims. Users will select the number of "victims" for their
practice session at the control panel and then receive computer-generated
feedback at the completion of their search.
"This is the first facility of its kind in North America," said Dean
Cardinale, Snowbird Assistant Director of Snow Safety and Wasatch
Backcountry Rescue Director of Dog Training. "The Rescue Training Center
brings professional avalanche rescue training to the public where it’s
accessible, easy and free."
Members of the media are invited to attend the opening of the Little
Cottonwood Canyon Rescue Training Center Thursday, Dec. 9, at 10 a.m.
Representatives of Wasatch Backcountry Rescue and the equipment manufacturer
will be on hand for interviews. Take Little Cottonwood Canyon to Snowbird
Entry 4 and follow the Bypass Road to Wasatch Powderbird Guides.
Wasatch Backcountry Rescue will install a similar avalanche training
facility Dec. 16 near The Canyons. WBR’s annual fund-raiser is at Park
City’s Club Suede Saturday, Dec. 18.
The Rescue Training Center is funded through Wasatch Backcountry Rescue, a
volunteer organization made up of snow safety professionals and their
avalanche rescue dogs from eight Utah resorts, UDOT, Park City Powdercats,
the Utah Olympic Park and Wasatch Powderbird Guides working with Salt Lake,
Utah and Summit county sheriff’s offices. Wasatch Backcountry Rescue member
resorts are Snowbird, Alta, Brighton, Solitude, Park City, The Canyons, Deer
Valley and Snowbasin.
Backcountry users of all types will come together Jan. 31-Feb. 6, 2005, at
Snowbird as part of the second annual Backcountry Awareness Week that will
include a presentation by mountaineer and filmmaker David Breashears,
Nepalese Sherpas, seminars, avalanche transceiver drills, and an evening
fund-raiser to benefit the Friends of the Utah Avalanche Center as they
support the "Know Before You Go" avalanche awareness program.
For more information on the Rescue Training Center, contact Dean Cardinale
at (801) 933-2156 or go to www.wasatchbackcountryrescue.org. For information
on Backcountry Awareness Week, contact Roger Kehr at (801) 450-0454 or go to
www.backcountryawareness.com <http://www.backcountryawareness.com/> . |
