Avalanche Canada has unveiled a comprehensive online database documenting every known avalanche fatality in Canada since 1782. The Fatal Avalanche Incidents database consolidates decades of records from various agencies and archives into one accessible, searchable platform, offering an unprecedented view of the nation’s avalanche history.
The initiative, funded through a three-year grant from Public Safety Canada’s Search and Rescue New Initiatives Fund, digitized and standardized historical records to create a map-based, interactive resource. Users can search by date, location, activity type, or keyword, and access detailed expert analyses, case studies, first-person accounts, and long-term statistical trends.
The database aims to improve public safety, support avalanche education, and inform research, while honouring the lives lost to avalanches over the past 240 years. Avalanche Canada emphasizes that each record tells a story and provides context for better decision-making in the backcountry.
“This project shows what’s possible when national partners invest in data, technology, and public safety,” says Gilles Valade, Executive Director of Avalanche Canada. “It helps us learn from the past to prevent future tragedies, while ensuring the stories of avalanche victims continue to inform how we live and play in the mountains.”
The Fatal Avalanche Incidents database is now live and publicly accessible at incidents.avalanche.ca
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