{"id":21461,"date":"2025-12-10T09:43:55","date_gmt":"2025-12-10T13:43:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.skipatrol.ca\/newsletter\/?p=21461"},"modified":"2025-12-10T09:43:55","modified_gmt":"2025-12-10T13:43:55","slug":"update-to-avalanche-decision-making-tools","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.skipatrol.ca\/newsletter\/2025\/12\/update-to-avalanche-decision-making-tools\/","title":{"rendered":"Update to avalanche decision making tools"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

By Ken Lukawy, Avalanche Education Programs (ken.lukawy@skipatrol.ca<\/a>)<\/b><\/i><\/p>\n

Over the years, Avalanche Canada\u2019s Avalanche Skills Training courses have introduced people to several decision-making tools – primarily the Avaluator\u2122 and the Avalanche Terrain Exposure Scale (ATES). Both of these tools have been updated for use in the 2025-2026 winter season.<\/p>\n

ATES 2.0 updates the Avalanche Terrain Exposure Scale by adding two new classes of terrain and a waterfall ice climbing communication model. The ATES technical model has also been updated, but that is of little interest to recreationists. The two new terrain classes are Class 0 (non-avalanche terrain) and Class 4 (extreme terrain). The image below is the new ATES 2.0 communication model for backcountry travel, describing the five classes and the implications for backcountry travel.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The Waterfall Ice Climbing communication model is new, incorporating the five classes of terrain and specific information related to climbing waterfall ice.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

For a more thorough description of ATES 2.0, please review the article The Avalanche Terrain Exposure Scale V.2 published in the Canadian Avalanche Association\u2019s *The Avalanche Journal*. It can be found here.<\/a><\/p>\n

The Avaluator\u2122 V3.0 still contains the two different, but very related, decision-making tools – the Trip Planner and the Slope Evaluation Card. The updates to these two tools are subtle and the best way to communicate the changes is to show the new cards.<\/p>\n

The NEW Trip Planner card:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The NEW Slope Evaluation card – the Assessment:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The NEW Slope Evaluation card – Travel Decision:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Do you feel your avalanche knowledge and skills need refreshing? Avalanche Canada\u2019s Online Avalanche Tutorial is the place to start \u2013 Avy Savvy<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Ken Lukawy, Avalanche Education Programs (ken.lukawy@skipatrol.ca) Over the years, Avalanche Canada\u2019s Avalanche Skills Training courses have introduced people to several decision-making tools – primarily the Avaluator\u2122 and the Avalanche Terrain Exposure Scale (ATES). Both of these tools have been<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3206,"featured_media":21365,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[516,545,217],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21461","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-516","category-december-2025","category-public-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skipatrol.ca\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21461","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skipatrol.ca\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skipatrol.ca\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skipatrol.ca\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3206"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skipatrol.ca\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21461"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.skipatrol.ca\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21461\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21513,"href":"https:\/\/www.skipatrol.ca\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21461\/revisions\/21513"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skipatrol.ca\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21365"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skipatrol.ca\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skipatrol.ca\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skipatrol.ca\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}