Update - May 9, 2002
An Update from the Avalanche Center
http://www.avalanche-center.org/
May 9, 2002
Online in html: http://www.avalanche-center.org/Organization/updates/
Translations: https://translate.google.com/
(To translate this update enter the webpage URL above and then follow
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This is a brief update on what is new and upcoming on the internet
Avalanche Center, http://www.avalanche-center.org/
Quick Contents:
- Special Thanks
- General News and Updates
- Store - Spring sale items
- Current Conditions set for spring and summer
- Education Section shift towards spring
- Incidents Section summary
This is a spring update from the Avalanche Center. We have updated
some things for the spring and summer and still have some store items
on sale. This may be the last update for quite a while now, during the
summer we typically issue very few updates. None at all some years.
So have a safe spring and remember to visit the website for general
spring and summer info or for any other avalanche related needs. Our
general discussion board
and other features are functional year-round.
Special Thanks
We receive no government funding or support and rely on user contributions to pay our operating expenses year round, in addition
to some industry sponsorships
and our store profits. Thanks to everyone who
helps keep us going - this was about our seventh season or so of operation.
Some people have made special contributions which are especially helpful,
and we'd like to briefly recognize these here.
A few people have made recurring
contributions so that some amount is automatically transferred to
us each month, typically $10 or so. This is a good way to make a significant
contribution to avalanche safety by spreading it out over a year. It
also helps us in the off-season when our revenue drops to pretty much
zero.
We received a notice from at least one employer that we would receive
a payroll pledge from an employee which would be matched by the company.
Many companies offer some sort of matching program for charitable contributions
and we appreciate the extra amount this brings in.
Finally, we just received a special contribution in the mail from somebody
in the US who wanted to share a bit of their tax refund which was larger
than usual for them this year. So at least a little bit of the tax cut
worth trillions has trickled down to us - and we appreciate that.
General News and Updates
We recently updated to Internet Explorer 6 and found some strange behaviors
on a few pages, including the home page. In an effort to fix this we
simplified the code greatly and validated
it to be html 4.01 compliant. (On the home page and one or two others
so far.) While this was a good thing to do and helped reduce the problem
it didn't eliminate it, and we've noticed similar problems on other
pages now and then. IE 6 has many reported bugs and has some difficulty
caching pages. If you use this new version, especially with a version
of windows older than XP, you may find some problems now and then until
they update it.
Other problems we've encountered have resulted from the newest version
of ZoneAlarm Pro, our firewall software. The new version allows you
to block pop-up ads and manage cookies but neither one works entirely
correctly. The ad blocking will also block scripts and the cookie manager
blocks some cookies which are needed to establish log-in sessions such
as our Contributor Services section (as well as web-based e-mail sites,
paypal, and others). We recommend you not use these features on Zone
Alarm, the same things can be accomplished with IE 6 settings.
Avalanche Store - Spring Sale Items
While "avalanche season" is winding down it's not entirely
over yet. Likewise, even though our store business has slowed way down
we still have a few items on the shelf which we would like to get rid
of soon. All of them are now listed on the Clearance
Sale page. (Two beacons, a few shovels, a couple probes, a study
kit, and a few other things.)
Most items on the public sale page are
discounted 25% right now, in the Contributor Services
area they are 35% off. We will be reducing prices further over the
next 10 days on anything which hasn't sold. But we only have one of
most things, so if if you wait for a lower price it may or may not still
be available.
The html code for our shopping cart is very touchy and we have sometimes
found after updating a page that it hasn't worked properly. We've cleaned
up the code and are doing more frequent testing, but if you ever have
a problem with the cart or order form in our store please let us know
by e-mail (at store@csac.org).
Current Conditions Section
Most of the condition advisories which go through our systems have
ended for the season. In the Mt
Washington (NH) area and the Northwest US they are issuing bulletins on an infrequent as-needed basis.
The only regular advisories still being mailed out right now are from
Davos, Switzerland.
All of the bulletins posted on our site have been updated with a note
at the top indicating that they are finished for the season, and directing
people to the appropriate page in our Education
center to learn more about spring
and summer hazards. Most of the final advisories contained some
general information on spring conditions, often with specifically local
information. This remains posted below our generic note at the top.
Education Center
Over the past week we've gotten back to work on the Education
Center. Our primary goal was to reorganize our spring
information links, but in the course of doing that a number of other
things were cleaned up as well. This section had fallen into relatively
poor condition, at least by our standards. There are now fewer bad links,
although a few areas such as the research page still need work. The
section map was seriously out of date and has been updated to reflect
the current content of the section. And it functions properly again now too!
Of particular current interest is our collection of spring
and summer information. We've created one page with links to about
4-5 articles around the web on this topic, and on the same page there
are links to those final avalanche bulletins which offer spring information.
Once you've read everything and brushed up on spring avalanche hazards
you can take our new quiz
to test your knowledge. Since it is new we would welcome any feedback
on questions, options given as answers, or the answers page itself.
A few questions have options which may be a bit subtle and we're open
to suggestions for improvements if people find them difficult, ambiguous,
or confusing. We can also improve the descriptions in the answers section
if they don't clarify things well enough.
Incidents Section Summary
There have been a few new incidents added since our last update, although
it is nice to report that things in this section have slowed down substantially.
The most recent involvements are listed on the main
incidents page, all are on the season
listing page.
One of the things the new searching
feature allows you to do is generate listings by month and by activity
(sorted by either as well). While we only have two seasons worth in
our database so far a bit of searching
shows that spring mountaineering and climbing incidents begin to show
up in April and constitute most listings for May and June, although
these months do generally have less reports filed. So if you are a climber
getting started for the season keep this in mind and go check out the
Education Center resources. In the Northwest
US there has just been some new snowfall and the coming weekend is forecast
to be sunny and warm. These conditions (new snow, rapid warming, and
sunshine) are ones to be careful in.
In Closing
As we wind down we wish everyone a successful spring and summer of
climbing and skiing. In some places the best skiing is just beginning,
so don't put those boards away quite yet! Just keep in mind the need
to get into a spring schedule and to think about things which differ
somewhat from what you may consider in mid-winter. We want to see you
checking in again in the fall ready to go, not recovering!
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