In the wake of the recent avalanche deaths in British Columbia, the federal government has unveiled a new avalanche warning system that it believes will keep back-country users safer.

But those deaths are also raising questions about how far the government should go to protect or punish people who venture into the wild.

“This is the most comprehensive and complete avalanche warning system designed to date,” said Jim Prentice, Minister of the Environment for Canada about the new warning system at a Wednesday (March 17) news conference in Calgary. “While we will never completely eliminate the risk, this initiative provides back-country users with another tool to use in conjunction with specific equipment and training to help minimize those risks.”

“The old system contained a lot of ambiguous language,” said Ian Tomm, executive director at the Canadian Avalanche Centre who worked in conjunction with the federal government, the National Search and Rescue Secretariat, United States Forest Service and the Colorado Avalanche Information Centre to put the warning system together.

The new system tries to make avalanche warnings clearer by using more graphics, said Tomm. Just like when people watch the Weather Channel and see a sun or a rain-cloud and know what the forecast is, the new system tries to convey the danger of an avalanche much quicker.

The icons are already in use in Europe and the newly- announced system provides the first international standard for the use of icons in avalanche warnings.

Tomm said that the technical analytic models that are used to predict the likelihood of avalanches have now also been changed and standardized across North America.

“This is really a complete overhaul of that entire system,” said Tomm.

The new system was unveiled four days after two men died in a slide near Revelstoke, B.C., although it has been in the works for the past year. The men, gathered with about 200 other people for a snowmobile festival, died after the CAC had issued several warnings from Revelstoke about the high danger of avalanches in the area.

“The only reason this accident has not gone down in the history books as Canada’s worst avalanche accident, is luck, coupled with the quick initial response,” concluded the preliminary report from the CAC.

The death of the two men has kicked up debate on newspaper editorial pages and in provincial and federal halls of power. The fundamental questions are: should the government do more to control people from going into the back-country and if people do go in and require rescue, should the government find a way to hold them accountable for their actions?

B.C. Minister of Public Safety and Solicitor General Kash Heed office’s said that starting in November 2011, the province will require registration for all off-road vehicles, including snowmobiles. Each vehicle will have to display a licence plate. Riders will be required to wear a helmet while traveling on Crown land and use lights when it is dark. And youth under the age of 16 will have limits on speed and the size of their machines.

Other restrictions may be coming.

Heed declined to say whether the government would impose fines or restrictions based on avalanche warnings. But he said the government is looking at a ‘comprehensive approach’ designed to rein in irresponsible back-country behaviour.

The Province of Alberta is taking a more hands-off approach.

“I don’t know how you would monitor and control all parts of Alberta,” Premier Ed Stelmach said to reporters Tuesday (March 16). “I know B.C.’s solicitor general is going to have a look at it. But you know, there’s this balance of common sense. How much of a risk do you take?”

In Italy, legislators and rescue services have taken a different direction.

Under existing laws there, anyone causing severe injury or the death of another person in the back-country faces a prison term. Anyone triggering an avalanche could be fined up to £220 euros.

After four Italian rescuers died trying to save two tourists this past Boxing Day, the Italian alpine rescue service, which has 7,000 volunteers, has also warned that it will refuse to intervene if the reckless behaviour of skiers or mountaineers makes conditions too dangerous for its teams.

“We simply have to take account of the safety of rescuers and sometimes that means saying no if there are dangers for us,” the organization’s vice-president Valerio Zani told the Italian media.

Fining and banning back-country enthusiasts in the Italian Alps is one thing, but working in an area as large as Western Canada is another thing entirely, said Ian Tomm at the Canadian Avalanche Centre.

He said the costs of enforcing regulations and restriction in Canadian mountain ranges could very quickly spread into the astronomical range.

“Take the country of Switzerland,” he said “ We have entire warning zones that are larger than Switzerland.”

He said that if the government took the money that it would have to spend on resources to police the back-country and instead pumped it into avalanche prevention measures, there would be a greater bang for the buck.

“By the nature of the ways these guys travel, they are creating similar conditions in the snow that mechanical heli skiing operations see and that requires a whole range of certification,” said Tomm.

He said that creating some sort of certified avalanche skills training course that specifically focuses on snowmobiling would be a good idea. The CAC currently only offers two levels of avalanche safety courses, none that focus specifically on snowmobiles.

About 14 people are killed in avalanches every year in Canada. Last winter, 24 people died: 19 were snowmobilers (killed in 11 separate avalanches) and five were skiers or snowboarders. A B.C. Coroners Service review panel concluded that many snowmobilers do not have the expertise to assess avalanche risks. The panel recommended better awareness programs and increased coverage and frequency of avalanche forecasts.