Jasper National Park of Canada
Archive 2005/01
Thank you for the overwhealming feedback to our first ever Jasper National Park E-News. Your comments were greatly appreciated and resulted in some changes. Please keep sharing your thoughts and suggestions with us. As we all know we live in a mountainous region subject to possible avalanche risk. Join us tomorrow (Jan. 29) for Avalanche Awareness Days with daytime demo events up at Marmot Basin (Explosives, dog rescue, transceiver and recco) capped by an evening speaker event at Amethyst Lodge with Alan Jones, coordinator of the Public Avalanche Warning Services at the Canadian Avalanche Centre and Grant Statham, Avalanche Risk Specialist for Parks Canada. Contact us at jasper.Enews@pc.gc.ca. Gisele Danis, Communications Manager, Jasper National Park of Canada.
It’s avalanche season in the mountains!
WHO’s WHO?
Jasper’s Public Safety Team
If you’ve spent any time exploring Jasper...you’ve probably thought about “What if you get into trouble and need rescue?”
Lucky for you, there’s a highly trained team of public safety professionals fully equipped to respond, no matter where and
what the situation. Leading the Public Safety Team is Steve Blake. Steve is a fully certified Mountain Guide, a former Search
and Rescue instuctor/coordinator and currently holds the position of Secretary/Treasurer on the board of directors for the
Canadian Avalanche Association. Trust that he and his team, within 30 minutes, can rappel down the deepest crevasse, manoeuver
a river boat, secure you in a heli-sling out of the backcountry or use Joppo the rescue dog to find you in an avalanche.
What’s new? Parks Canada’s avalanche safety program
The winter of 2002-03 set off an alarm bell for Canada’s avalanche professionals when 29 people— including
seven Grade 10 students from a Calgary area private school — were killed during the deadliest avalanche season
in Canadian history. The accident triggered a number of safety reviews across British Columbia and Alberta.
Parks Canada has put new tools into place to make backcountry information more readily avaliable for everyone.
1. New Signs “You are in Avalanche Country” with a general number and website for more information.
2. New guidelines that help school groups and others decide where, when and how they can travel into avalanche country.
3. A new risk rating system called ATES (Avalanche Terrain Exposure Scale) which indexes trails according to both location
and their avalanche exposure ratings (Simple - Class 1, Challenging - Class 2 and Complex - Class 3).
A new publication “Avalanche Terrain Ratings for the Mountain National Parks” is available at park info
centres and gives ratings for most park trails.
4. A new avalanche warning system, based on icons developed in consultation with the avalanche
community provides users with more detail “at a glance” about the current avalanche conditions.
5. Special trailhead kiosks at all major backcountry trails in the mountain national parks will begin
to appear throughout the winter. They’ll include 3D mapwork detailing key avalanche terrain and risk areas.
In Jasper, the locations will include: Parker Ridge, Whistler Creek (Marmot Basin) and Bald Hills.
Virtually Guaranteed
As of the 2005 season, visitors to Jasper National Park (and 20 other national parks across Canada) can now make a campground reservation through a single call or online visit, eliminating the stress of uncertainty and disappointment of arriving too late.
“We expect this will give visitors peace of mind,” says Pam Clark, Visitor Services Manager with Jasper National Park. “More and more people are pre-trip planning today than ever before. People want the security of knowing they are going to have a campsite when they arrive.”
Created in response to public demand, the service was successfully piloted last summer in 8 national parks, including Jasper’s Pocahontas campground. Clark says “Parks Canada was pleased with the results of the pilot, with strong local and regional response, despite little marketing efforts.”
Helen Kelleher–Empey, acting GM of Jasper’s Chamber of Commerce says, “The new reservation system is good for Jasper, especially for our European and International visitors. In the past some of these guests would arrive in town and leave, unable to get a campsite at the last minute. We weren’t sure whether they would return the next day or not. This new system guarantees their arrival and stay in Jasper, and makes for a much happier visitor.”
Mediamix of Toronto developed and is managing the reservation system. There were no additional costs to taxpayers in setting up the new system, as the reservation fee covers the full cost of the reservation system. The cost of a campsite reservation is $11, and changes or cancellations are $9.
To book a campsite in Jasper National Park, or a site in any of the other 42 national campgrounds click: www.pccamping.ca or dial the toll free 24 hour number 1-877-RESERVE.
Birds Eye View
- Tracksetting Update Snow, followed by rain and ice has made for poor cross-country skiing conditions so far this year. Don’t put your wax away yet though, Parks Canada is committed to tracksetting once the snow flies. Track set locations in the park include Whistlers, Meeting of the Waters, Medicine Lake and Pipeline. Whistlers campground gate will be locked until icy conditions improve. Tracksetting at the Maligne Lake area has been suspended pending a recovery plan for Jasper’s threatened caribou population.
- Tracking Caribou rescheduled The Tracking Caribou bus tours have been rescheduled to Sunday, February 27 at 9:00am and 1:00pm. Bus space is limited, so call 852-6146 to book a seat. This bus tour follows on the heels of the Caribou Loppet that will be held on Saturday, February 26.
- Trail users help restore
wolf movement Trail users, along with the Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge and Parks Canada are once again helping wolves travel through the wildlife corridor that extends through the JPL golf course. People are taking the trail along the river and around Lac Beauvert instead of 7a, 1a, and 7. Dog walkers are using trail 7b - River Trail loop.
- Tree thinning on power line Crews from ATCO Electric, Parks Canada and Parks Canada contractors are removing selected trees along the main power line paralleling the edge of town, at the base of Pyramid Bench. The work extends from just south of the Sawridge Hotel to the rear of the RCMP station. This work has two objectives: to remove weak or dead trees that could fall and strike the power line
causing a power outage or a wildfire; and, to complement the FireSmart - ForestWise community project work on the bench slopes reducing the fuel and restoring health to the forest near town. This work should take about 2 to 3 weeks. Tree thinning will also occur around other power lines near Trail 8c and the Patricia Lake Bungalows.
- Cultural Resources & National Historic Planning for both the David Thompson bicentennial celebration (2007 - 2011) and the Park centennial (2007) have begun. These celebrations will be gearing up in the next couple of months. If you have ideas for either celebration, Ken Walker can be reached at 852-6190.
Did you know?
Mountain Names
- Mt. Alberta (3619 m): Named by Norman Collie in 1898 for H.R.H. Princess Louise Caroline Alberta. Married to the Marquis of Lorne who was Governor General of Canada from 1878 to 1883, the province of Alberta is also named for her.
- Mt. Athabasca (3491 m): A Cree word meaning “where there are reeds”, which descibes the marsh delta at the mouth of the Athabasca River. The mountain was believed to be at the headwaters of the river.
- Mt. Edith Cavell (3368 m): Named in honour of Edith Cavell, a British nurse who was executed during World War I for helping in the escape of allied prisoners of war.
- Mt. Christie (3103 m): Named after William Joseph Christie, chief factor for the Hudson’s Bay Company at Edmonton from 1858 to 1871.
- Mt. Columbia (3747 m): The highest mountain in Alberta, named after the Columbia River. Captain Robert Gray named the river after his ship in 1792.
- Mt. Kerkeslin (2956 m): Named by Hector in 1859. Kerkeslin is believed to be a Stoney Indian word for wolverine.
- Roche Miette (2316 m): Thought to be a poor French translation of “myatuck,” a Cree word for bighorn sheep, which are very common in this area.
- Pyramid Mountain (2763 m): Forms the distinctive backdrop for the town of Jasper. Named by James Hector in 1859 to describe the shape of the mountain, especially apparent from Highway 16 east.