Safety Committee

 

 
Safety Committee members
Safety Articles & Information
Policies, procedures and forms
Mountaineering Equipment Acronyms Explained
Accidents in North America submission form    


The Safety Committee evaluates current practices and equipment as they might interest or concern Canadian climbers. Formal and informal networking, publication review and active testing are complemented by participation in various conferences and international efforts, including Accidents in North American Mountaineering.

Accidents in North American Mountaineering (ANAM) is an annual compendium of climbing accident reports in the United States and Canada. This annual series started in 1948 and is published by the American Alpine Club (AAC). The Alpine Club of Canada (ACC) started contributing material in 1977.

The objective of the ANAM series is to learn from other climbers’ mistakes. Each book contains detailed reports and analysis’s of what went wrong. Over time a pattern in common mistakes, objective hazards, and route specific hazards become apparent. Far from macabre, the information contained within ANAM contains valuable safety lessons for all climbers, whether a beginner or a seasoned veteran.

There was an absence in Canadian content from the ANAM for a few years while the ACC located a new content editor. The ACC is committed to mountain safety and a return to regular Canadian contributions is expected for the 2010 ANAM. In the interm, accident reports are gladly being accepted for any year, which will be included on this website. The success of the ANAM is dependent upon the contributions of climbers, like you, and various park and rescue agencies.

For more information regarding the ANAM, please contact the ANAM Canadian Content Editor, Rob Davidson, at anameditor@alpineclubofcanada.ca

NOTE : There is now an online submission form for Canadian content for the Accidents in Noirth American Mountaineering located on this site, please click here to visit this page, to submit your accident report.

To purchase a copy of ANAM, please visit the ACC On-line store.

Safety Committee Members:

Ernst Bergmann (Committee Chair)
Frank Pianka – Thunder Bay Section
Peter Amann – Jasper/Hinton Section
Selena Swets – Vancouver Island Section
Robert Chisnall – Toronto Section

Policies, procedures and forms

The Alpine Club of Canada has established policies regarding Waiver Administration, Incident Management and Reporting for all ACC activities. The information here is available for Activities Coordinators and all Trip Leaders.

Trip Waivers

Any participant in activities sponsored by The Alpine Club of Canada is required to sign the Release of Liability, Waiver of All Possible Claims, and Assumption of Risk ("the Release"). The importance of this document to The Alpine Club of Canada cannot be over-emphasized. The following form is provided for section trip leaders to print out and require their trip participants to read and sign.

Waiver Admin Policy - How to manage those waivers.
ACC Waiver Forms - Blank forms available to download and print.

Incident Reporting

In the event of an accident on any ACC-sponsored activity, it is essential that the ACC National Office be notified.

Field Accident Report - Recording information to be passed to medical professionals. Trip leaders should always carry this with them on trips.
Reporting Guidelines - the ACC policy on incident reporting.
Incident Report Form (PDF version) - use this to report incidents to National Office. Read the "guidelines" for information about what is required.
Incident Report Form (Word Format) - use this to report incidents to National Office. Read the "guidelines" for information about what is required.