In Winter 2021 the Mountain Safety Collective set up the Southern Hemisphere's first Avalanche Training Center (ATC) at Mount Hotham, Victoria Australia. Due to the various COVID restrictions and lockdowns the Mount Hotham Ski Patrol had plenty of opportunities to get to know the ATC and hone their transceiver and probe search and shovelling techniques.
MSC’s Rolf Schonfeld and Kyle Boys installing the ATC at Mt Hotham
In spite of the season’s limitations, over 250 exercises were registered on the ATC as not only Ski Patrol but public backcountry users, on-mountain guiding services and the local avalanche safety trainers as well as VIC PolSAR (Police Search & Rescue) and even some kids used the system.
Bill Barker, Ski Patrol Director at Mount Hotham had this to say: “The ATC resource proved to be a very effective and efficient avalanche rescue training area for our patrol team. Having the ATC ready to use at any time meant that, as well as running planned large scale rescue scenarios with many patrollers, we could also be very opportunistic and a single patroller or two could utilise the resource whenever time allowed. Having easy and ongoing access to the ATC for the winter, improved and consolidated our team's avalanche rescue skills, and we will certainly be utilizing it in the future.”
Key feedback points were:
Time saver, as no set up required
Ability to practice by yourself or in a group
Near real life scenario as ‘victims’ were at some point 1.8m under ,really testing your probing
Practicing different shoveling techniques to relocate ‘victims’
Flexibility to test the groups ability in scenarios of varying complexity
Multiple burial scenarios, in this case max.6 ( possible 5-16)
Informative and concise signage so even beginner backcountry tourers can easily
Practice avalanche rescue.
Possibility of cross agency training scenarios Photos are:
Probing
Info and Control Unit Board Installation
Burial of Transceiver prior to snow event
Scouting for Transceiver Locations with transceivers in the background
AST 1 course at ATC board with a bit of snowscaping the area becomes a meeting point in bad weather
Kids learning about Beacons and Probes
Mountain Safety Collective is currently pursuing installing an Avalanche Training Centre in NSW, with the help of funding from our members and supporters. Jump on board if you’d like to see this happen!