Snowshoeing and winter hiking has seen a dramatic increase in popularity in the last decade. But there have also been 25 snowshoeing and winter hiking avalanche fatalities in North America in the last decade.

To design better avalanche safety products and services for this community, an in-depth understanding of their needs and challenges is critical, but to our knowledge, no formal research exists on this topic.

The goal of our study was to collect detailed information on:

1. The general levels of exposure to avalanche terrain faced by snowshoers and winter hikers,
2. Their use of formal avalanche safety products and services and other information sources, and
3. Their reasons for using or not using the existing products and services.

To gather this information, we conducted trailhead interviews with approximately 500 snowshowers and winter hikers on Mount Seymour just north of Vancouver, British Columbia.

• Griffin Slimkowich
• Pascal Haegeli

• Mitacs
• Avalanche Canada