By Joe Obad, Executive Director, Canadian Avalanche Association
THE INTERNATIONAL SNOW SCIENCE WORKSHOP returned to Europe this year, with the conference hosted in Tromsø, Norway, from Sept. 23–29. Between the northern location (Tromsø sits at 69.6°, well inside with Arctic Circle) and the new hosts (first ISSW for Norway and Scandinavia), this year’s ISSW promised to hold something new.
Each ISSW reflects a mixture of the hosts and the input from visiting participants. ISSW Tromsø was no different. Many presentations reflected the Scandinavian approaches to avalanche monitoring, mitigation, and public risk communication. Several presenters were affiliated with the organizing committee that included the Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate (NVE), Norwegian Public
Roads Administration (NPRA), the Arctic University of Norway, and the Norwegian Geotechnical Institute (NGI). The committee was led by the NVE’s indomitable Rune Engeset.
These various bodies play different roles managing Norway’s geographic and user challenges. Running 1,750 km from north to south, Norway is blessed with a beautiful but challenging coastline of over 100,000 km, only second to Canada’s in total length. The NPRA manages a range of avalanche-affected roads across the country, with a surprising volume of roads to remote locations in and around Tromsø and areas even further north.
With its small population and many remote, sparsely populated settlements, Norway emphasizes systems and technology—even Norway can’t push tunnels through everything. They have invested heavily in remote monitoring, modelling, and other technologies to manage their challenges. Presentations were offered on satellite, radar, and lidar systems, which in some cases connect to automatic gates that close
roads when avalanches are detected. The level of monitoring and remote sensing was impressive.
For the North American context, it is uncertain which of these technologies will find a use on our side of the ocean. That said, we are blessed with many early adopters who help sift the wheat from the digital chaff. I’m confident we’ll see programs in Canada tease out the best of these new technologies. Don’t be surprised if they extend beyond highways into other applications.
Canada was well represented at ISSW 2024. Presentations like Chris Argue’s 50 Shades of Blue: Risk Gradients Within Avalanche Hazard Zones and Scott Thumlert’s Assessing and Communicating the Likelihood and Probability of Snow Avalanches were well received. Kudos to Scott, who survived a jellyfish sting (acquired by diving in the harbour waters after a sauna) to recover for his presentation. All ISSW 2024 paper abstracts are now available in the full Montana State ISSW Archive.
Perhaps no Canadians were better received than the organizers of ISSW Whistler 2026. Tim Haggerty, Nicole Koshure, Jerome David, and the rest of the committee impressed the ISSW steering committee with their progress, and got the world excited to come to Canada in 2026, when researchers and practitioners will once again gather to explore the ISSW motto of merging theory and practice.
ISSW 2024 Photo Gallery
Thank you to Canadian attendees who submitted photos from ISSW 2024. It’s great to see so many CAA members, both past and present, were able to travel to Tromsø to attend.
