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Avalanche-Center.org has just issued a new update on the site and project. This one announces a new quiz-yourself feature with prizes, and a new course for spring mountaineering in our Avalanche Institute. More ...

The Avalanche Center, www.avalanche-center.org, is proud to announce that our new Avalanche Institute is now open. Our cornerstone project is a complete Level 1 course. Full details for each module of the course are posted publicly, including objectives and outlines. Check it out: http://www.avalanche-center.org/institute/index.php?announcement=1

Ortovox introduced the new 3+ avalanche transceiver at the OR Winter Market and ISPO tradeshows. The 3+ is equipped with groundbreaking transmitter technology that allows the unit to automatically adjust polarity for optimal reception by searching beacons.

It is a question being debated in the Swiss media at the moment. It follows 2 incidents where off piste skiers and snowboarders set off avalanches that then hit a marked piste. More ...

The Avalanche Center, www.avalanche-center.org, is proud to announce that our new Avalanche Institute is now open. Our cornerstone project is a complete Level 1 course with all non-field material presented online. Field days will be available from partners.

Avalanche-Center.org has just issued a new update on the site and project. This one reviews our Incidents section, and well as making a store offer and mentioning some of the features of our new Avalanche Institute. More ...

Pigs saved from the chop after public protests stopped them being buried alive in snow by scientists are to end up as sausages, say researchers conducting the tests. More ...

To save human lives and study the effects of being buried in avalanches, researchers buried live pigs while monitoring them as they died. A total of 29 pigs were part of the two-week study. The study was voluntarily terminated and an official statement released. More ...

Avalanche equipment manufacturer Backcountry Access, Inc. (BCA) had a big holiday week, delivering two much-anticipated products: the Tracker2 avalanche beacon and Float 30 avalanche airbag.

The Avalanche Center, www.avalanche-center.org, is proud to announce that our new Avalanche Institute will be open this season. We currently need volunteers to help with some benchmarking and review. A traditional Level 1 course in the last two years is required. snow@csac.org

A fraudulent and harassing check written to the Avalanche Center was investigated by police. This action constitutes two felonies and three midemeanors at a minimum. The perpetrator was Mr Glenn Kessler, an employee of the National Park Service and formerly of the US Forest Service. Mr Kessler teaches avalanche courses on Mt Hood under the business name Mountain Savvy.

Cochrane’s Shawn English had to work during the holidays. As a gunner for the Canadian Armed Forces, his duty was to protect the people driving through the Rogers Pass on the Trans-Canada Highway from the threat of avalanches.

Avalanche experts say better gear and improved awareness have led to a drastic reduction in the number of people killed each year by avalanches. Switzerland’s Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research (SLF) said statistics for the latest ten-year period show that around 40 per cent of people caught in avalanches die. At the end of the 1970s, the figure was around 60 per cent.

A Swiss military court has acquitted two army guides accused of negligent homicide of a group of soldiers killed by an avalanche in 2007. The accident, in which six soldiers fell 1,000 meters (3,280 feet) to their deaths, was the Swiss military's worst in 15 years. Eight people, including the two guides, were rescued unharmed.