Avalanche Awareness Days are Here! Check Out an Event at a Canadian Rockies Location Near You

It's winter and once again the Canadian Rockies are having a bad avalanche season that the Canadian Avalanche Centre thinks may get worse. As I write, the avalanche forecast for Kananaskis tomorrow is high above treeline, considerable at treeline and moderate below. I was going to lead a snowshoeing trip up Black Prince Outlier in Kananaskis, but decided to move the trip to the safer and relatively flatter Chester Lake.

You can never learn enough about avalanche safety, and it's never too earlier to teach your kids. Fortunately, Avalanche Awareness Days are coming to a number of Canadian Rockies locations. Each event has different activities, ranging from shovelling races and avalanche terrain talks to demonstrations of dog rescue teams doing their things.

For more information, go to the events section of the Canadian Avalanche Centre website.

Avalanche Awareness Days Dates

Banff--January 18-19, 2014
Kananaskis/Burstall Pass--January 19, 2014
Nakiska Ski Resort--January 18, 2014
Lake Louise Visitor Centre--January 16, 2014
Lake Louise Ski Resort--January 18-19, 2014

For more avalanche education information, read these posts:

Kids Outdoor Skills: Age-Appropriate Avalanche Safety Education
Kids Outdoor Skills: Avalanche Safety Video for Teens

Let's Make Getting Outdoors and Active Fun for Our Kids Again

"If a school day is six hours then at least two should be set aside for hiking, biking, skiing, skating, sports or whatever it is that kids like to do and can do. Because that’s the secret, and the antidote to all this gym-oriented, heart-rate-monitor-wearing unsuccessful “fitness” blathering. Teaching kids that activity is fun, that being able to do what you want physically is important, and that it matters both individually to long-term qualify of life and collectively as the cause of massive wastes of tax dollars."

--World-class ice climber Will Gadd in Explore Magazine

When I read that, I was on a treadmill at the gym. I wasn't wearing a hear-rate monitor, but I may have been holding onto the heart rate sensors. And I was in the new Youth Wellness Center of the Westside Recreation Center in Calgary that's restricted to kids aged 13 to 18 from 3:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. I was getting in shape, but I wasn't having fun.

As I looked around, I realized that I was surrounded by the spandex-clad specimens of the near perfect human forms that Gadd talks about in his article. I am not a near perfect human form, and I don't think I ever have been. I generally carry a few extra pounds around the waist. When I recently lost 20 pounds (although the Divorce Stress Diet is effective, I don't recommend it), I realized I was also carrying a few extra pounds all over my body: cheeks, pecs, legs, back, buttox, everywhere.

For me, working out at the gym isn't an end to itself, whether that's weight control or making sure I look good in a bathing suit. It gives me the basic level of fitness I need to enjoy myself hiking, snowshoeing, scrambling, and doing a bunch of other activities in the mountains. It helps me have fun outside of the gym.

Fun. In the end, that's what it's all about. When I coach my sons' soccer teams, I stress fun because I've seen what happens when soccer isn't fun: kids stop playing. When I take my sons hiking and snowshoeing and I lead kids hikes for my outdoor group, I stress fun because I've seen what happens when hiking isn't fun: the kids don't want to come out any more. Worse, they learn that hiking and active living in general aren't fun, which decreases the chances of them growing up into active adults.

As parents, our job is to help our kids grow up into adults that are healthy physically, emotionally, and intellectually. Yet, as Gadd points out, the focus all too often is on the intellectual, which we abdicate to teachers and schools to look after. Physically? That's up to our kids' phys-ed teachers and sports coaches and doctors. Emotionally? When was the last time you asked your kids how they're feeling and why they feel that way?

Getting kids outside on a regular basis, whether it's hiking in the mountains or running around an urban nature park, and just letting them have fun is one of the most powerful ways we can address their physical, emotional and intellectual health. It gets them active and teaches them that being active is fun. The emotional benefits of being in nature are well documented: stress levels decrease while things like self-confidence and self-awareness increase. And it instills in them an intellectual curiosity about the world around them that they don't get sitting in a classroom. 

If you're reading this, you know what I'm doing to get my two sons outside and active. Leave a comment below to let us know what you're doing, and we can share ideas.

 

The Importance of Introducing My Kids to the Outdoor Community--My Community

A thumbs up from Mack on an olde tyme bigge wheele bicycle at the Tour of Alberta Festival.

Part of raising outdoor kids is exposing them (a.k.a. making them do stuff) not just to the outdoors, but to outdoor culture and the outdoor community. I have to admit that I haven't done a very good job of this, but over the past year I've been making this a priority.

Why? I'm part of the outdoor community and I want to share that community with my sons. I'd like them to decide to become part of it with me, although I accept that we each have to follow our own path. It's a pretty fun community to be part of, though, and I'm pretty sure Mack and Michael have realized that. I've met some pretty amazing people through my outdoor adventures (some less than amazing people too, but what are you going to do?), and those adventures have taken me from the West Coast Trail on Vancouver Island at the age of 12 to a 5,900 m peak in Ecuador at the age of 44. The outdoors and the outdoor community have helped me deal with hard times and provided more good times than I can even remember.

This weekend I hadn't planned anything of the outdoor community kind, but two opportunities presented themselves and I eagerly grabbed hold. The first was an invite from a fellow outdoor parent to join her, her son and some friends at the Best of the Vancouver International Mountain Film Festival at a neat little hamlet by the name of Bragg Creek on Saturday night. Mack, Michael and I duked it out in good fun with our inviters over a paint ball package in the silent auction (ultimately, we both lost the bidding, which was probably for the best). And at the last minute we lost the bidding for a sweet package of cycling clothes made by a local company called Brainface. Yes, the boys and I like a good silent auction. Mack and Michael also saw me drooling over bespoke skis made by another local company, Snoday, and began drooling themselves. There's nothing like drooling over outdoor gear for good old fashioned male bonding.

I also ran into an old friend, Paul, who I hadn't seen in a while, and reintroduced the boys to him. And the boys were totally into the films, including Mountains in Motion, an awesome short film written by fellow outdoor family blogger Meghan Ward. I also finally got to see Shattered, a short film by climber Steve House, and walked away from the festival comforted that even world-class high-altitude mountaineers deal with the same doubts and fears as I do. That my boys, only 9 and 13, then wanted to talk about the film, House's fears and why he climbed made the shared experience an incredibly rich one. It spurred a talk about the risks I take in the mountains that I need to have with them on a regular basis, but don't initiate often enough.

Sunday, I saw on Facebook that a friend, Cynthia, was working the Ft. Calgary booth at the Tour of Alberta Festival. I take the boys trail biking a few times a year, but I'm not really a "cyclist" and I'm definitely not a road biker or into Tour de France stuff. But there were world class bike racers in this, the inaugural Tour of Alberta, the boys love the food trucks that are always at these things, and it's all part of the outdoor community.

What a fantastic afternoon we had! We ran into Paul again, visited Cynthia's booth and got pictures of the boys in North West Mounted Police uniforms, ran into my hiking friend Maija who was volunteering at the TELUS Spark booth (we gotta get out hiking together soon!), bumped into Bob (I've known him since grade 5 and he's now married to Cynthia), got interviewed by Val who's a Calgary Herald columnist and a friend and one of my former editors at Avenue Magazine (I was a journalist in a past life) who I haven't seen for years, talked with a colleague who'd crashed in the GranFondo Banff a couple weeks earlier and was now sporting a wrist cast and a concussion...

Then there were all the other things. A balance course that Mack aced and Michael persevered on until he made it. Olde tyme bigge wheele bicycles that Mack again mastered quickly but were too big for Michael (although he did get an invaluable lesson in how to get a pretty girl to put her arms around him; see photo below...that's my boy!). Give aways like water bottles, cycling socks and Jelly Belly's. The energy that surrounds the finish line of world-class athletic events. All three of us soaked it in. We weren't just part of the outdoor community, we felt like we were part of it and part of something much bigger than ourselves.

Much like we feel when we're in the mountains--part of something much bigger than ourselves.

A lesson in how to get a pretty to girl to put her arms around you. That's my boy!

Bear Safety for Kids: How do you teach them about it without freaking them out?

As seen from the car on the Smith-Dorrien/Spray Trail in Kananaskis in August 2013.

Fall has begun in the Canadian Rockies, which means that the black bears and grizzlies are focused on one thing and one thing only: eating as much as they can before they hibernate. This brings them down to the valley bottoms and sunny hillsides where there are still ripe berries to be found. The same valley bottoms that a lot of trails run through.

This makes bear safety that much more important. Especially when you've got kids who want to run down the trail ahead of you. Last spring I shared my usual bear safety for kids pre-hike talk. Since then, I've learned that one of the most important things I say are the first six words out of my mouth:

"We probably won't see a bear today, but it's important we know what to do if we do see one."

The only thing worse than the kids not knowing what to do if they see a bear is spending their entire time on the trail in mortal fear of being eaten alive. And I've had a few kids on my hikes that were totally and irrationally scared of bears. It didn't help when a black bear-eating grizzly made the front pages a couple weeks ago. Even the young offender teens I guided last week on a backpacking trip in Banff were freaked out at the prospect of a cannibal grizzly wandering out of the trees. If teenagers can't put the actual risk of encountering a bear in perspective, how can I expect younger kids to?

So these days I stress that we probably won't see a bear, I go through the rest of my talk, and I repeat that we probably won't see a bear. On the trail if I hear kids talking each other up to DEFCON 2 about bears, I repeat that we probably won't see a bear again and change the subject. I worry a little about the kids misinterpreting what I'm saying as a minimization or dismissal of the risk, but so far I haven't seen any evidence of that.

How do you talk to your kids about bears and bear safety? If you've got ideas on how to keep them from inflating the dangers in their heads to the point that they're too scared to enjoy their time in the mountains, I'd love to hear.

Post-Mortem of a Prematurely Ended Kids Hike: Why We Didn't Get Very Far Up McGillivray Canyon

Just before the turn-around point.

In January, I went through the 3 Ds of how I pick a kid-friendly trail:

• Discovery--The realization that I'd found something that could be a good trail for kids.
• Due Diligence--Researching the trail for hazards and anything else I missed that might rule out the trail for kids.
• Decision--Whether the trail is suitable for kids or not. 

The approach through the trees

Last January, I thought I'd found the perfect kid-friendly trail in McGillivray Canyon. It was a tight canyon with lots of fun twists and turns, chains and ladders to climb up, and a big choke stone at the top to marvel at. The question was: Would what I saw as Indiana Jones and the McGillivray Choke Stone turn out to be a kid-size remake of 127 Hours?

My biggest worry was that the pools of water that were frozen in January would be too deep in the summer. In fact, that turned out to be the case when Mack, Michael and I tried McGillivray Canyon today. Although helmets aren't strictly necessary on this trail, we all put on our hard tops as a matter of principle. Safety is a habit, and I want to instill that habit in my sons. Then, before we even reached the canyon, we had to deal with a hazard that wasn't there when I'd done the trail in January: massive log jams that had been swept down the canyon and deposited in the stream bed by the floods in June.

Navigating the results of the June flood

After navigating through the dead fall to the mouth of the canyon, we made it either around or across the first few pools. But after only a few hundred meters we were stopped by a deep pool the width of the entire canyon, which was about a meter at that point. A couple meters up on the right was a cable strung the length of the pool that we could have used to get around the water, but the boys would have had to hold the cable and lean back over the pool to press their feet into the steep rock wall. They weren't too keen on that, and I wasn't about to make them, so we headed back.

That's when I noticed how well they were hopping

Having fun in the canyon

across the boulders that lined the bottom of the canyon. All the outdoor stuff their crazy dad took them on was having an effect! So I commended them on how well they did to get as far as we had, and casually described how the pools were frozen in the winter and you could just walk over them. "We should come back in the winter," Mack said. Then Michael added, "Yeah, I want to find the ladders you have climb up."

That's my outdoor family!

Hopping over one of the first pools

The pool that stopped us. You can just see the cable in the upper right.

The traditional post-hike ice cream cone in Canmore makes up for everything.

Kids Hikes in Banff, Kananaskis, Kootenay and Beyond

Kids Hikes in Banff, Kananaskis, Kootenay and Other Areas in the Canadian Rocky Mountains

If you're looking for a good trail to take your kids hiking in Banff National Park, Kananaskis, Kootenay National Park or somewhere else in the Canadian Rocky Mountains, you'll find it here.

Banff National Park

Click here to check trail conditions in Banff National Park.

• Hiking with Kids in Banff: C-Level Cirque, the Whole Trail
• Hiking with Kids in Banff: The old mine building halfway up the C-Level Cirque Trail
• Hiking with Kids in Banff: Consolation Lake
• Hiking with Kids in Banff: Tunnel Mountain 

Kananaskis

Click here to check trail conditions in Kananaskis.

• Hiking with Kids in Kananaskis: Burns Ridge
• Hiking with Kids in Kananaskis: Cat Creek
• Hiking with Kids in Kananaskis: Corri-Robb Trail
• Hiking with Kids in Kananaskis: Fullerton Loop
• Hiking with Kids in Kananaskis: Jura Creek  
• Hiking with Kids in Kananaskis: Little Lougheed
• Hiking with Kids in Kananaskis: Pocaterra Cirque
• Hiking with Kids in Kananaskis: Ptarmigan Cirque
• Hiking with Kids in Kananaskis: Sparrowhawk Tarns
• Hiking with Kids near Canmore: Stoneworks Canyon
• Hiking with Kids in Kananaskis: Tryst Lake 
• Hiking with Kids in Kananaskis: The Vaults of Mt. McGillivray
• Hiking with Kids in Kananaskis: Watridge Lake & Karst Springs

Kootenay National Park

Click here to check trail conditions in Kootenay National Park.

• Hiking with Kids in Kootenay National Park: Stanley Glacier

Flooding in Banff and Kananaskis: Where to find up-to-date information on road and trail conditions

The floods that hit Canmore, Banff, Kananaskis, Waterton and other areas of the Canadian Rockies will be felt by the outdoor community for the rest of the summer, and probably well beyond. With all the misinformation flying around the Internet--and credible up-to-date information often difficult to find--I thought I'd put together a list of links where you can find the trail and road condition information you need to make decisions about getting out to the mountains.

General Mountain Conditions

• Highway conditions--http://511.alberta.ca/ab/en.html
• ACMG Mountain condition reports--http://acmg.ca/mcr/archives.asp & http://acmgmountainconditionsreport.blogspot.ca/
• Reports on conditions throughout the mountains as reported by ACMG guides.

Banff National Park

The Banff townsite is open. Check the links below for the latest information on how to get there and what you can do once you're there.

• Comprehensive flood-specific information including road and trail closures--http://www.pc.gc.ca/pn-np/ab/banff/ne/neuf-news.aspx
• Trail conditions--http://www.pc.gc.ca/apps/tcond/cond_e.asp?oPark=100092

Canmore

If there's a central page for flood related information, I couldn't find it on the Town of Canmore website. You'll have to click around to find specific information, but it's there:

• http://www.canmore.ca/
• Canmore attractions status updates from Tourism Canmore--http://www.tourismcanmore.com/explore/insiders-guide/canmore-attractions-status-updates

Jasper National Park

• Comprehensive information on flood-related, seasonal and other closures--http://www.pc.gc.ca/eng/pn-np/ab/jasper/ne/urgence-emergency.aspx
• Jasper Trail conditions--http://www.pc.gc.ca/apps/tcond/cond_e.asp?oPark=100244

Kananaskis Road and Trail Conditions

• Comprehensive flood-specific information including road and trail closures--http://www.albertaparks.ca/albertaparksca/advisories-public-safety/advisories/southern-alberta-flooding-situation.aspx
• This page also contains information on other provincial parks.

• Kananaskis Trail conditions--http://www.albertaparks.ca/kananaskis-country/advisories-public-safety/trail-reports.aspx
• Map of road and area closures--http://www.albertaparks.ca/kananaskis-country/advisories-public-safety/kananaskis-closed-areas-%28including-highways%29.aspx

Kootenay National Park

Kootenay isn't reporting any damage or closures from the flooding.

• Kootenay Trail conditions--http://www.pc.gc.ca/apps/tcond/cond_e.asp?oPark=100253

Waterton Lakes National Park

Waterton had some flooding damage and road closures, but remained open and accessible.

• Information on road and trail closures--http://www.pc.gc.ca/apps/scond/Rec_Rep_e.asp?opark=100429
• Waterton Trail Conditions--http://www.pc.gc.ca/apps/tcond/cond_e.asp?oPark=100429

Yoho National Park

Yoho wasn't affected by the flooding.

• Yoho Trail conditions--http://www.pc.gc.ca/apps/tcond/cond_e.asp?oPark=100438

Canoeing with Kids: Getting them Started on a Lifelong Adventure

Canoeing is a natural family activity. It brings parents and kids together as a cohesive team in a way that most other outdoor activities don't. And it's fun. Way fun. If you'd like to get your kids and family out canoeing this summer, please read the article Canoe Camping with Kids that I wrote for Amelia Meyer's blog, Tales of a Mountain Momma. While you're there, be sure to check out her other great posts on getting your kids, your family and yourself outside where you all belong.

Kids Outdoor Skills: It's Time to Start Thinking About Bear Safety for Kids

You know spring has sprung in the Canadian Rocky Mountains when the first bear is spotted. Last week No. 122, a 320 kg male grizzly, was spotted in Banff. That means it's time to start each of my kids hikes with a talk on bear safety.

A black bear beside the road to Burns Ridge

This isn't as straightforward as it might seem, though. I've seen grown adults almost come to fisticuffs over what to do if they see a bear. I only recently started carrying bear spray (I got tired of the strange looks people gave me when I told them I didn't carry it), while one guy I hike with carries bear spray, an obnoxious air horn, and bear bangers. If we experienced hikers can't agree on bear safety, what are we supposed to tell kids? And how do we tell them without scaring the bejeezus out of them? I know adults who are irrationally scared of bears to the point that they spend the entire time on the trail at DEFCON 2. A paralyzing fear of bears is the opposite of what I want the kids to go home with.

For a definitive resource on bear safety, I look to Parks Canada. Based on the bear safety section of its website, heres what I tell kids:

1. We probably won't see a bear today, but it's important we know what to do if we do see one.
2. Don't run ahead of the group. If there's a bear ahead you don't want to surprise him.
3. Make lots of noise so, in the unlikely event that there is a bear nearby, he'll know we're coming and get out of our way. Bears want to run into people even less than we want to run into them.
4. If you see fresh poop on the trail, stop and wait for the adults.
5. If you see a dead animal, don't go near it. Tell an adult what you saw.
6. If you see a bear and it doesn't see you, slowly back away until you reach an adult.
7. If you see a bear and it sees you:

• Stay calm. If you freak out, so will the bear.
• Don't yell. Yelling is aggressive, and aggression can trigger an attack.
• Don't run. Although the bear doesn't want to eat you, running triggers its chase response.
• Make yourself look big. This is directed at the parents of small kids. Picking them up will make both of you look bigger and it will calm the kid down and prevent him or her from running.
• Look at the ground, not at the bear.
• Talk to the bear in a firm, low voice. Tell him you're his friend and don't want to bug him. This will tell the bear that you're human and not an animal.
• Back away slowly to an adult. Don't turn around. That could trigger the bear's chase response.

One thing I don't tell them is what to do if a bear attacks. Play dead if it's a grizzly, fight back if it's a black bear? I'm not sure I'd be able to tell the difference once my heart started pounding and it was all I could do to fight back the adrenaline-fueled urge to run.

Full Disclosure: I've spent a lot of time in the mountains, but I'm not an expert on bear safety. Use this blog as a starting point only. Take a bear safety course, read a bear safety book, and learn as much as you can about bears.

Skiing with Kids: Teach them that there's no such thing as "sidecountry"

When I was a kid, there was in-bounds and out-of-bounds. In-bounds was where you were allowed to ski. Out-of-bounds was outside the ropes where you weren't allowed to ski. If you ducked under the ropes you would be immediately lost and freeze to death. Or worse, your lift ticket would be taken away and you'd have to explain things to your parents. It was simple.

Today, kids are faced with something called "sidecountry". It's just beyond the ski area boundry, a magical place where you can experience the thrills of backcountry skiing with none of the dangers. It's risk-free, it's fun and it's extremely tempting. The problem is, as the U.S. National Ski Area Association pointed out in a recent editorial titled "There's No Such Thing As Sidecountry", it doesn't exist.

What is sidecountry, or slackcountry as it's also known? As described above, it's the area outside the ski hill boundaries. All you have to do is duck under the rope, poach some epic pow or tree skiing, duck back under the rope at the bottom and take the chairlift up for another run. That's the theory. The reality is that it's not patrolled by the ski patrol, there's no avalanche control, and you have no idea what you're going to find or whether you'll find a way back to the chairlift. It has exactly the same risks as backcountry skiing, without the recognition of those risks. And a risk you don't recognize is a risk you can't assess and either mitigate or avoid. It's a risk that can kill you.

Despite this, sidecountry is celebrated by ski and snowboard manufacturers, outdoor media and a world wide web's worth of blogs and other social media. For example, one of the cover stories of the February/March issue of Backcountry is "Sidecountry Lies and Why They Keep Killing." Inside the magazine, they devote one page to the NSAA editorial. But keep flipping through the magazine and you find article after article telling you why sidecountry is fun, how to ski sidecountry and so on.

If you're an impressionable young skier, you could be excused for being confused. Out-of-bounds is bad. Sidecountry is good. Throw in some peer pressure, the indestructibility of youth, and a kid whose skyrocketing hormones are screwing with his/her brain (ah, puberty, I remember you well), and you've got all the conditions for tragedy.

So what's a parent to do? Teach your kids that there's no such thing as sidecountry, and the dangers of ducking under the rope. Teach your kids responsible skiing by example. Teach your kids age-appropriate avalanche safety. Have the talk with their ski buddies as well. And make it clear that if they duck under the rope and survive, there will be very real, near fatal, consequences when you find out.

For more information on ski and avalanche safety, read these posts:

Skiing with Kids: Getting Down the Hill Safely Starts on the Chairlift Up
Kids Outdoor Skills: Age-Appropriate Avalanche Safety Education
Kids Outdoor Skills: Avalanche Safety Video for Teens 

Raising Outdoor Kids: 10 ways you can tell if it's working

You're committed to raising kids who are as passionate about playing outside as you are. You buy them the gear. You sacrifice "me" time in the outdoors to take them on easier hikes, snowshoes and other kid-size adventures. You clench your teeth and live through all the "This is too hard" and "Can we go back yet?" comments. You budget money to take them white water rafting and heli-snowshoeing instead of to buy new backcountry skis for yourself. And at the end of the day, you ask yourself, "Is this working? Is it all worth it?"

Here's how I know my efforts to raise outdoor kids are working, and why I get at least as much out of it as my boys do:

1. Upon making it down the steep scree above the meadow at Ptarmigan Cirque my 12-year-old says, "I didn't have any trouble coming down that. All this hiking must be working."

2. My 8-year-old tracks some kind of big cat while we're snowshoeing and says, "I bet I'm going to study wildlife when I grow up."

3. My 8-year-old goes to a summer camp at Mount Royal University and announces, "I'm going to Mount Royal University when I'm older. They have a climbing wall."

4. Their favorite ride at Disneyland is Grizzly River Rapids because "it's like being in the mountains."

5. Standing in line at the Matterhorn in Disneyland, I have to tell my 8-year-old not to climb up the fake mountain.

6. Both of my boys say they'd rather go back to the Jean-Michel Cousteau family camp on Catalina Island than Disneyland for their summer vacation.

7. My 12-year-old says he wants to go snowshoeing for his 13th birthday instead of playing laser tag.

8. It's February, and my 8-year-old asks if we can go camping in the spring because he doesn't want to wait for summer.

9. While waiting at Panorama's activity center to go white water rafting, my 12-year-old looks at the tennis courts and says, "I'm an outdoorsy person. But not the tennis kind of outdoors."

10. When grandma asks my 12-year-old about his favorite part of going to Hawaii, he doesn't say it was playing at the beach or the hotel pool. It was caving at the Kula Kai Caverns.

Skiing with Kids: Getting Down the Hill Safely Starts on the Chairlift Up (with video)

When I was a kid, I remember a girl showing up at school one Monday with a cast on her leg. She'd been skiing and fell off the chairlift.

The next winter, the son of my hockey coach was paralyzed when the chairlift he was on broke down and he broke his back jumping off.

My friend Clint would regularly get smeared across the disembarkation station of chairlifts because he kept forgetting to lift his tips. You could also count on Clint to have at least one wipe out a day on the t-bar because he was goofing around. Perhaps not surprisingly, Clint was eventually taken off the hill in a sled when he skied into the tower holding the t-bar cable up. He still can't straighten his left arm.

So I wasn't surprised when Youtube footage surfaced of a 17-year-old falling from a chairlift in New Mexico (scroll to the bottom of this post to watch). He slipped while throwing a snowball at a friend, managed to hold on to the chair for a while, then fell 45-feet. He was lucky to "only" break his skull and suffer internal injuries.

Today, high-speed quads equipped with safety bars have replaced rickety old doubles and t-bars at most resorts, and magic carpets whisk kids up bunny hills that used to be serviced by rope tows. I can't even remember the last time I saw a Pomalift. With all this newfangled technology, a lot of us let our guard down once we're down the hill and in the lift line. This is especially true for kids, who are often never taught even the basics of lift safety.

The good news is that lift safety hasn't changed much. After showing my kids the video of the teenager falling off the lift, this is what I told them:

• Always take the pole straps off your wrists before getting on the lift.
• Always lower the safety bar.
• Always sit with your butt as far back as possible in the seat, and don't slouch.
• Don't goof around on the lift.
• Don't slap your skis together to get snow off them or swing them back and forth.
• Don't turn around to throw a snowball at your friends on the lift behind you.
• If the lift breaks down, wait. It'll either start back up or someone from the resort will come to get you.

You can find more information on lift safety at www.kidsonlifts.org.

Read more about winter safety for kids in these posts:

Kids Outdoor Skills: Age-Appropriate Avalanche Safety Education
Kids Outdoor Skills: Avalanche Safety Video for Teens 

Kids Outdoor Skills: Age-Appropriate Avalanche Safety Education

February 1 was the tenth anniversary of seven grade 10 students being killed by a massive avalanche near Revelstoke, British Columbia. The group from Calgary's Strathcona-Tweedsmuir private school had been on an annual backcountry ski trip, which was part of the school's respected outdoor education program.

At the time, the tragedy shocked Canada's mountain community. The number of deaths and the age of the victims were unthinkable. Every parent who takes their kids out to the mountains couldn't help but share the sorrow of the victims' parents. The press had a field day second guessing those parents for allowing their kids to participate in such a risky activity, and the adults involved in the trip were roundly criticized.

As tragic as that day was, some good did come out of it. Today, avalanche safety awareness is light years ahead of where it was ten years ago. Parks Canada developed the Avalanche Terrain exposure rating system, which is now used in other countries that include the United States. The simple three-level rating system helps people rate the risk of the area they're venturing into and make better decisions. This alone has probably saved lives. Another much needed initiative that came out of the tragedy was the creation of the Canadian Avalanche Centre. Its website brings together current avalanche danger bulletins of national and provincial parks in western Canada, and is a valuable resource for a wide range of avalanche safety information.

After a recent ski trip to Mt. Norquay with my 8- and 12-year-old sons, during which which we saw avalanche control blasting in progress above the resort, I've spent quite a bit of time on the CAC's website. One of the documents I found provides guidelines for age-appropriate avalanche safety education. It's quick to read, easy to understand, and in 25 pages breaks down avalanche safety into topics that are appropriate for the maturity of kids from kindergarten to grade 12. For example, it notes that while kids in grade 4 and 5 still listen to adults, they're starting to flex their independence at a time that they don't really understand consequences. As a result, the discussion they recommend for kids at this age is different from what they recommend to tell kids in grades 6 and 7, who are more likely to succumb to peer pressure to duck the rope at a resort and are starting to understand that death isn't just something they see in the movies.

I won't try to summarize the entire document in single blog post. I'm not that good and the subject deserves more attention by parents and other adults who lead kids in the winter. Whether your kids are going to the backcountry or a ski resort, you should read this document and start talking about avalanche safety with them. You can download the entire document by clicking this link:

GUIDELINES FOR TEACHING YOUTH AVALANCHE EDUCATION

For more information on avalanche safety resources for kids, read:

Kids Outdoor Skills: Avalanche Safety Video for Teens

Hiking with Kids: The 3 D's of Picking a Kid-Friendly Trail

The choke stone in McGillivray Canyon

I've been looking for more canyon trails since I led a kids hike up Stoneworks Canyon early last summer. The kids loved the canyon's short section of narrow, tight curves and overhanging walls that it had taken water thousands of years to carve out of the limestone. Beyond the curves, the canyon opened up a bit to a boulder strewn creek bed that they had a blast scrambling over.

Recently, I found an even better canyon: McGillivray Canyon. It had about a kilometer of tighter, curvier walls with chains and a ladder bolted into the rock to help climb up and over obstacles and steps. Near the end a giant choke stone was suspended above the canyon floor like something out of an Indiana Jones movie. At 4 km round trip, it was a fun little hike for adults, but it would be an extreme adventure for kids.

See how the actual kids hike to McGillivray Canyon went

Click here for more kids hikes in Banff, Kananaskis, Kootenay and other areas of the Canadian Rockies.

One of the cables over a frozen pond

The problem? I hiked McGillivray Canyon in late January, when there was enough snow and ice to make it a little too extreme for kids. Would it be kid friendly in the summer or was I letting my enthusiasm cloud my judgement? What I saw as Indiana Jones and the McGillivray Choke Stone could easily turn into a kid-size remake of 127 Hours.

One question I get asked a lot is how I pick my kids hikes. Even experienced hikers ask. Especially experienced hikers. They want to take their kids beyond the usual interpretive trails and standard easy hikes, but they're worried about taking them on a trail too that's too hard or too far. My answer is simple: the 3 Ds of picking a kid friendly trail. Discovery, due diligence, decision.

The Khumbu Icefalls for kids

1. Discovery

I call this the "Aha!" moment. It's when I realize that a trail would be great for kids. In the case of McGillivray Canyon, it was the moment we entered the canyon and I saw the high narrow walls. Then I saw the chains and had a double Aha. In other cases, it's coming across a boulder field for the kids to climb on (see my post on hiking Little Lougheed with kids) or fossils for them to hunt (see my post on hiking Burns Ridge with kids).

Chains to help climb a short step

2. Due Diligence

When I get back home, I start the due diligence process to make sure I haven't missed anything that would rule the trail out or that I should be aware of before taking kids on it. This includes assessing hazards on the route. If possible I talk to other people who have hiked the trail. Other sources of beta (information) include websites with trip reports, Google Images for photos, and guide books.

In the case of McGillivray Canyon, one of the hazards were the many frozen pools in the canyon bottom. They were small and had logs across them, but in January they were frozen and we could walk right over them. There were also cables strung over the logs to hold onto, but some might be too high for kids to reach. Google Images confirmed that the logs did indeed cross standing pools of water in summer, but not how deep they were. Could the kids cross the pools on the logs without excessive risk of going for a dip? If they did go for a dip, what would be the consequences? Could a parent walk through the ponds to help kids out if necessary?

Then there was the source of the water in the pools. How much water flowed in the canyon once the ice melted?

The highest chained section. Tricky with ice, kids should be able to climb it dry.

3. Decision

The ice on a couple frozen ponds had broken, revealing gravel two or three inches below. Talking with people in the Calgary Outdoor Recreation Association (CORA) who'd done the canyon in summer and fall, it sounded like most of the pools were ankle deep. Deep enough to drown in, but not so deep a parent couldn't quickly scoop a kid up. Trip reports on the web suggested that the water was no more than a trickle after the spring run off was finished.

The decision: I'll schedule a McGillivray Canyon kids hike this summer, probably in late July or August--well after spring run off. Stay tuned for the trip report.

Post Script: When I post this kids hike on CORA's website, I'll include a description of the chains, the logs and the possibility of the trickle turning into a torrent if an expected storm hits. Letting other parents know about the hazards is not only a courtesy, it's a responsibility. I appreciate the trust parents put in my judgement when they come on one of my kids hikes, but I can only decide what risks are acceptable to expose my own kids to. It's up to other parents to make the same informed decisions for their own kids.

The boulders at the end.

Kids Outdoor Skills: Avalanche Safety Video for Teens

I went skiing with my 8- and 12-year-old boys at Norquay, and we saw the Banff parks people doing avalanche bombing at the top of the mountain. Answering the boys' questions about why the ski patrol was intentionally setting off avalanches got me thinking that it's time to start teaching my kids about avalanche safety.

When I was growing up, there were few outdoor courses on avalanche safety or anything else. As with many things, kids--and parents--have it easy these days. There are plenty of avalanche safety resources out there for kids, although they can be hard to find. Unfortunately, a lot of parents and kids don't know where to look, or even that they should look. If they think of avalanches at all, they're something cool that happen in movies or to hardcore backcountry skiers and ignorant snowmobilers.

One excellent avalanche safety resource for kids is The Fine Line. Available on DVD and online, it's a movie that tweens and teens going into avalanche terrain should watch. Actually, any youths going anywhere with snow on a hill should watch it: snowshoers, hikers, cross-country skiers, backcountry skiers and boarders, resort skiers that could be tempted to duck under the rope and poach a closed run...It's pretty good for adults, too.

Basically, The Fine Line tricks kids into learning the basics of avalanche safety by disguising "education" as an extreme ski/snowboard movie. It mixes avalanche safety information in with alternative rock (can't hear Wintersleep's "Weighty Ghost" too many times), a plasticine history of the world, massive avalanches, crazy pros skiing and boarding epic lines, and people telling their stories of getting caught and buried by avalanches. It's raw and real, and it doesn't condescend to kids (warning: there are a couple bad words in it). The movie doesn't take the place of an avalanche safety course taught by certified instructors, but it will get kids thinking and taking avalanche risks seriously.

You can order The Fine Line on DVD from the Canadian Avalanche Centre, or watch The Fine Line on Amazon Instant Video. The DVD has the movie and four training films, although I don't know what the Amazon version includes.

If you know about other avalanche safety material geared towards young people, let me know and I'll post it.

Hiking with Kids: 7 Steps To Make Hiking Fun for Kids

This is boring. How much farther? Can we go back to the car?

When I first tried to introduce my two boys, then 5 and 10, to hiking, I heard those statements a lot. And let's be honest: walking through the trees, usually uphill, can be boring. I seldom hike on trails that don't get above the treeline, and the sooner those trails get into the alpine the better. When picking mountains or ridges to ascend, I look for ones that don't have long approaches through the trees. I'll drive for 1.75 hours to the Highwood Pass, home of Canada's highest highway, or 2.5 hours to the Icefields Parkway, both of which typically have shorter approach trails, to save a half hour or more of trudging through the trees.

Click here for kids hikes in Banff, Kananaskis, Kootenay and other areas of the Canadian Rockies. 

Climbing a big grey rock half up the trail to Sparrowhawk Tarns

So what can you do to make hiking fun for kids? Here are some suggestions:

On a big grey rock overlooking the Spray Lakes

1. Make hiking fun by making hiking fun--Pick a destination with something fun to do, like climbing on boulders or throwing rocks in a lake. This weekend I'm leading a kids hike halfway up Burns Ridge in Kananaskis. Last weekend, while scrambling the ridge with adults I found fossilized clams in a bunch of boulders. With the kids, we'll hike to just above the treeline, drop our packs, and start fossil hunting.
2. Don't call it hiking--Once you've picked your destination, say a boulder field they can play around on, tell them you're going to play around on some big rocks. Or that it's a fossil hunting expedition, not a hike halfway up a ridge.
3. Go at the kids' pace--Let them mosey, dawdle and do what kids do. If they stop to look at a rotting log, let them. Nothing will turn them against hiking like continually pushing them to go faster or stop taking so many stops.
4. Take an interest in the things they take an interest in--Say the words "Wow," "Cool" and "Neat" a lot when they point stuff out. You want them to engage in your love of the great outdoors, the least you can do is engage in their curiosity and encourage their sense of wonder.
5. Take other kids with you--This is probably the most important piece of advice I can give you. It was a hard learned lesson, no matter how simple or how obvious it now seems. I've seen kids go from "I'm tired. I can't go any further" a mere five minutes from the parking lot, to running down the trail with a new-found friend within 10 seconds of meeting each other. I lead kid's hikes for the Calgary Outdoor Recreation Association, so I have a constant supply of hiking buddies for my kids. If you aren't up to leading group hikes, join a group that has kid's hikes or bring one or two of your kids' friends.
6. Go for ice cream--I call it the post-hike bribe, and in the beginning it was one of the main attractions for my kids. They knew that if they humored me and made it to wherever I said we were going, we'd stop for an ice cream cone on the way home. Now that they have the mountain bug, they still want the ice cream but it's not the end of the world if we don't have time.
7. Stay off their backs--Kids get cuts and scrapes and bruises. It's in their job description. At least it used to be. These days, us parents seem to spend more time worrying about keeping our kids safe than in teaching them how to be safe. Part of learning how not to get cuts and scrapes and bruises is getting them. So let them. Try not to tell them how to do everything, or to be careful of this or to watch our for that. Unless what they're doing could end in tragedy, let them do their thing and be kids. Nothing is more fun than that feeling of being free to have fun. If your kids come away from the mountains having felt that, I guarantee they'll want to keep going back.