indigenous avalanche training grant
Dynamic Avalanche Consulting, the International Snow Science Workshop Whistler Foundation, and the Canadian Avalanche Association are pleased to introduce an annual grant supporting Indigenous participation in professional avalanche training. The intent is to reduce barriers to avalanche education, help create pathways into the avalanche profession, and support Indigenous leadership in mountain environments where connection to the land is deeply felt.
The grant will provide financial support to Indigenous applicants pursuing professional avalanche training. Where professional training is not the appropriate next step for selected applicants, the grant may also support recreational avalanche education as a pathway toward future involvement in avalanche risk management and snow science. In its inaugural year, the grant will be awarded to two members of Indigenous Women Outdoors.
This grant reflects a shared commitment to inclusion, learning and long-term relationship building within the avalanche and Indigenous communities. It will continue annually to support at least one Indigenous recipient each year.
This year’s recipients of a CAA AvSAR Level 1 and CAA Ops Level 1 grant are:
Aiyana Anderson-MacIsaac
Aiyana Anderson-MacIsaac is the Executive Director of Indigenous Women Outdoors (IWO) and an emerging backcountry leader dedicated to creating safer, more accessible pathways for Indigenous women and gender-diverse people in the mountains. Since joining IWO as a participant in 2020, Aiyana has progressed through advanced backcountry training, supported mentorship and safety programs, and completed avalanche safety levels 1 and 2, and crevasse rescue training.
As a CAA AvSAR L1 and CAA OPS 1 grant recipient this season, Aiyana is excited to continue building the skills needed to one day become a professional guide in the Sea to Sky region. She hopes to use this training to strengthen IWO’s leadership capacity, guide community programs, and help create more opportunities for Indigenous women to safely connect with the mountains.
Medáneghá Det’ele Ts’ÍyÓné’ Tu tÉtlel
Medāneghá Det'ele Ts'īyōné' Tu tētlel is a Disabled, Queer, Indigenous Gender Variant snowboarder who has been lucky enough to have met Sandy Ward and Myia Antone, the founders of Indigenous Women Outdoors (IWO). They have been even luckier to get to spend so much time with IWO learning and supporting newer riders in the backcountry. They started touring with IWO in 2021 and have spent many hours doing courses, sometimes twice to reinforce all their learning, and to travel in the backcountry safely. They understand the immense work that their mentors have taken to create spaces for them and wish to continue in creating spaces and access in mountain sports.
Medāneghá Det'ele has spent much of their life mentoring younger people in outdoor settings through volunteering and similar informal pathways. They take building community and access seriously. Receiving a CAA AvSAR 1 and CAA OPS 1 grant will help give them tangible steps towards becoming a mountain guide and working towards following in the footsteps of their mentors. Creating spaces where people who have similar experiences and face similar barriers to me, can allow them to see themselves in the backcountry as well as create opportunities for them to participate.