Avalanches. When they fall on you, that’s bad.

Members of Sparwood Search and Rescue were at the Atlas Staging Area on Jan. 16 to drive that point home during Avalanche Awareness Days.

They brought a set of beacons and transceivers and trained some of the assembled snowmobilers on how to use them. Snowmobilers, skiers and others who operate in avalanche country should not leave home without their transceivers which can be used to locate people buried in an avalanche.

“We brought it to educate people on transceiver usage,” said Lisa Larson, member of the Canadian Avalanche Association. “So that people are more proficient at rescuing themselves or their partners.”

Using their equipment, the rescuers set up a beacon park, which tested the participants’ ability to locate transceivers in buried snow.

According to a coroner’s report, between 1996 and 2014 there were 192 avalanche related deaths in B.C., an average of 10 deaths each year. Snowmobiling and skiing were the most common activities users were engaged in when an avalanche struck.