Informed Consent

By filling out this questionnaire, you are consenting to participate in our research. Your participation in this survey is voluntary, and you may choose not to respond to any question or terminate the survey at any time. While it is not possible for participants to withdraw previously submitted responses, responses of participants who did not complete the survey will be destroyed prior to analysis.

Taking part in this study is considered low risk as the research does not expose participants to any known or unforeseeable risks. Consenting to participate in research does not waive any rights to legal recourse in the event of research-related harm.

All information you provide in this survey will be confidentially stored in a registry at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, British Columbia. Any contact information you provide will only be used to contact you for participation in future avalanche safety studies conducted by the Colorado Avalanche Information Center (CAIC), Friends of CAIC, and Simon Fraser University. Your responses will be analyzed in aggregate and will not be identifiable in any publications.

While the data collected in this survey will be stored indefinitely in the registry to facilitate a continuous communication and longitudinal studies about avalanche safety products, there are two options for you to request having your personal data removed from the registry:

• Sending an email to pascal.haegeli@sfu.ca at any time.
• All of our emails inviting you to participate in a targeted research study will explicitly give you the option to request being removed from the registry.

Note that your information will never be shared outside of the Colorado Avalanche Information Center (CAIC) and the avalanche research program at Simon Fraser University.

The winter backcountry activities mentioned in this survey involve serious risks that can lead to severe injuries and/or death. Note that being associated with these activities might negatively affect your insurance benefits (e.g., travel insurance).

For any questions regarding this study, please contact Dr. Pascal Haegeli, NSERC Industrial Research Chair in Avalanche Risk Management, at pascal.haegeli@sfu.ca or 778-782-3579. If you have any concerns about your rights as a research participant and/or your experiences while participating in this study, please contact the Director, SFU Office of Research Ethics, at dore@sfu.ca or 778-782-6618.