Avalanche Center Update

Lots of work has been done on the avalanche center since last season, stop
by and check it out - hopefully it will help get ready for the approaching
winter.

Our annual on-line fundraising auction will open for bidding by the end of
the week. More details soon, but there is a link to the auction from the
homepage and from each section page and you can see what items will be
available to bid on.

While there have been too many changes since last season to recall and
list all of them here are a few:

Each section now has a map/directory to help find things easier.

The store has been updated and has a number of new items. There are still
a few more to be added in the next couple weeks. We probably have the
widest selection of avalanche safety equipment, books, and videos that can
be found in one place anywhere.

The Education section has been improved a bit. The glossary has been
updated some more, although with several hundred pages in it there is
still lots of work to be done. The listing of avalanche safety courses
is starting to get entries, watch for more to be added on a frequent basis
in the next few weeks. It is now possible for avalanche course providers
(or anyone else) to add courses to the listing online. If you teach
courses or know of courses in your area please stop by and add them for
everyones benefit.

Our links section under "Other Cool Stuff" has also been updated so that
people may add their own reciprocal links online. If you link to us you
can enter a link back to you by filling out the form in that section. We
hope to be able to maintain a better links section through a combination
of automating entries and automating bad-link checking this year.

A lot of the most recent work has been "behind the scenes". The avalanche
bulletin archives, incidents, etc has all been rolled over to start again
for this season. We've been implementing link checking using Linkscan and
right now 93% of our 1300 external links are valid. Most bad ones are
seasonal or on three pages we need to update soon. According to this
program we have over 500 public html pages and almost 200 other files such
as pdf items. (Not counting graphics and excluding the glossary.) Most of
this has been manually created over the past five years. We've only
recently adopted a webpage design program, and still find it primitive in
many ways. But it is acceptable and does simplify some things.

Finally, a huge effort has been going into searching for support. The
result of this effort is the few companies which are sponsors of our main
pages. It is quite difficult to get industry to sponsor this education 
and safety project, please take note of those who do. In addition to
sponsors the auction has also gathered industry support. While industry
support is important and we put lots of effort into seeking it we receive
most of our support from individuals. Last season individual contributions
exceeded sponsorships, store income, and the auction combined. Most
contributions were small - they really do add up. Many thanks to everyone
who felt the project was worth supporting.

Check us out often this winter - stay aware. And have fun in the snow!