Parks Canada Visitor Safety Program Focussed on Incident Prevention and Response
Editor’s Note: Two serious accidents in the 1950’s within Banff National Park prompted Parks Canada to form what we know today as Visitor Safety. The team focusses on the prevention of incidents, as well as their responses to them.
Entering national parks is not without its risks, but with Visitor Safety teams, partnering organizations and visitor education and cooperation, we can all enjoy our beautiful parks in a responsible and sustainable manner.
This article first appeared in the 2019 State of the Mountains Report. We'll continue to publish articles exploring the science on our current state of Canada's alpine on our blog throughout the year. Find them all here.
Above: Banff National Park’s Visitor Safety team. Back row (L-R): John-Paul Kors, Brian Webster, Lisa Paulson, Tim Haggarty, Ian Jackson, and Steve Holeczi. Front row (L-R): Conrad Janzen and Aaron Beardmore. Missing: Alex Lawson, Grant Statham, Mike Henderson (and Cazz the dog). Photo: Banff Visitor Safety.
The formation of the visitor safety teams
The mandate of Parks Canada includes encouraging visitors to experience and enjoy the national parks. Experiencing a mountain park, however, is not without risk.
In the 1950s, two serious accidents on Mount Victoria and Mount Temple in Banff National Park resulted in 11 deaths, and spurred Parks Canada to increase its mountain rescue capabilities.¹ Today, full-time Visitor Safety teams work in the mountain parks of Banff, Yoho, Kootenay, Jasper, Mount Revelstoke, Glacier and Waterton Lakes with the goal of reducing the likelihood and severity of incidents in the national parks.²
Mountain park Visitor Safety teams consist of members of the Association of Canadian Mountain Guides (ACMG) and the Canadian Avalanche Association (CAA) who are trained in Search and Rescue (SAR). They also rely on highly-trained avalanche search dogs and handlers, Parks Canada dispatch personnel, helicopter rescue pilots, medical staff and other Parks Canada staff to assist with incident responses. Teams are prepared to respond 24/7 by land, water or air to a variety of incident types in terrain ranging from prairie grasslands to heavily glaciated peaks.
Working to prevent incidents
Central to the Visitor Safety program is the concept of shared responsibility. This means that while Parks Canada will help facilitate safe and enjoyable experiences, visitors are ultimately responsible for their own safety.³ Shared responsibility becomes even more essential in remote or difficult-to-access areas where self sufficiency is crucial, and rescue may be significantly delayed.
The Visitor Safety program focusses on two distinct areas: prevention and response. Prevention of incidents involves educating visitors about hazards, helping them prepare for their experience and informing them of available response services. The goal is to encourage appropriate decision making while enjoying the mountain parks. Prevention measures in the mountain parks include hosting hazard awareness outreach programs, personally answering visitor inquires and developing trip-planning resources for visitors. One example of a prevention strategy is the use of social media to provide visitors with current terrain photos, trail conditions and rescue reports to help with their decision making. This up-to-date information is especially useful for mountain routes with ongoing glacier recession and seasonal snow cover changes.
During the winter, prevention measures include publishing daily public avalanche bulletins to help visitors manage backcountry avalanche hazard and conducting avalanche control on slopes above the highways to protect motorists travelling in and through the mountain parks. Avalanche control is carried out using fixed remote avalanche control systems, explosives deployed by helicopter, and, in Glacier National Park, military artillery control work.
Opposite: Visitor Safety use a helicopter to sling up to a mountain rescue. Photo: Ian Jackson.
Working to respond to incidents
Response to incidents involves determining the location and performing the rescue. Increases in cell phone coverage, new satellite locator devices and satellite phones have made it simpler to call for a rescue and transmit precise coordinates to the rescue team. In many cases, two-way conversations can now be held during incidents. Clear communication helps determine urgency, fine-tune location information and tailor the response to the incident. As a result, response times are shortened, patient outcomes are improved, and resources are minimized. All visitors are strongly encouraged to carry appropriate communication devices for the region they are travelling in.
Performing the rescue involves a variety of tools for access and transport by ground, water or air. Ground travel includes off-highway vehicles such as e-bikes, snow machines and wheeled stretchers, and high-angle rope systems. Rescues requiring water travel use motorized boats, canoes or rafts. Air access is done by helicopter - either by landing nearby or slinging people in and out of the incident site on a fixed-length line below a helicopter.⁴
Currently, helicopter rescue provides the fastest response in most areas of the mountain parks and allows for the use of minimal staff to conduct a rescue, even in technical terrain. Having Parks Canada-certified rescue pilots and helicopters which are equipped for sling rescue nearby and available is key to making helicopter rescues useful and efficient.
The use of drones as a search tool – to assess an incident or to deliver supplies to a subject – is just beginning to be explored in the mountain parks. As drones become capable of longer flight times and able to carry larger payloads, they may play an increasing role in responses.
Working together with additional SAR groups
Partnering with other SAR groups allows for the exchange of knowledge and helps increase response capacity. Visitor Safety teams regularly train with provincial SAR teams, assist with incidents adjacent to the mountain parks, and bring in external SAR groups when more resources are required. In addition, mountain park Visitor Safety teams train with other Parks Canada staff and assist with technical, remote or high-altitude incidents in mountainous areas such as Kluane (Yukon) or Auyuittuq (Baffin Island) national parks.
Reducing the likelihood and severity of incidents remains the primary goal of the Visitor Safety program. Good communication with visitors, implementation of new technologies and strong relationships with partner organizations help achieve this goal and promote enjoyable visitor experiences within the mountain parks.
Conrad Janzen works as a Visitor Safety Specialist in Banff, Yoho and Kootenay national parks. He is also an ACMG certified Mountain Guide, a professional member of the Canadian Avalanche Association, and has a Bachelor in Kinesiology with a major in Outdoor Pursuits from the University of Calgary.
References
1. Mountain Safety program. Pc.gc.ca (2019). at https://www.pc.gc.ca/en/pn-np/mtn/securiteenmontagne-mountainsafety/programme-program
2. Parks Canada. Directive on Visitor Safety. 3-20 (Parks Canada, 2012).
3. Parks Canada. Visitor Safety fact sheet. (Parks Canada, 2015).
4. Parks Canada. Visitor Safety Program - 2017 IEM Statistics. (Parks Canada, 2018).