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CAC acquires snowmobile from Yamaha

The Canadian Avalanche Centre acquired a brand new snowmobile from Yamaha Wednesday morning.
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Randy Swanson from Yamaha hands over the keys to a Nytro MTX snowmobile to Ian Tomm of the Canadian Avalanche Centre.

The Canadian Avalanche Centre received the keys to a brand new snowmobile from Yamaha Wednesday morning.

The snowmobile, a Nytro MTX, was acquired by the CAC to assist in its information gathering. Ian Tomm, the executive director of the CAC, said the snowmobile would be used to gather field information in the southern Canadian Rockies, around Fernie, B.C. – an area heavily used by mountain snowmobilers.

"This year we're building out a data observation in the southern Rockies in order to improve data quality in the Fernie area," Tomm told the Times Review. "Snowmobiles are really effective tools for data collectors to get out."

Tomm said the Southern Rockies were the focus for this year. Next year the CAC will look at improving information gathering in the northern Rockies region. Both areas have limited snowpack information coming through the CAC's Info-Ex, so the snowmobile will be used to gather more information.

Randy Swenson, the regional manager for Yamaha, helped arrange support for the CAC to purchase the snowmobile. He said Yamaha was of its alignment with the CAC. "Yamaha was the first snowmobile manufaturer to sponsor the work of the CAC and we continue to raise money for their snowmobile programs," he said.