In Canada's mountainous regions (western Alberta, British Columbia, southeastern Quebec), park wardens perform several tasks to determine the risk of avalanches occurring and to remove the threat of avalanches. They watch weather patterns, including temperature and snowfall; they measure snow depth in areas where avalanches are known to happen; and they use a variety of tests to determine if the snow in an area is ready to slide.

After the wardens have established that an area poses an avalanche hazard, there are a few methods that they can use to trigger an avalanche under controlled and safe conditions. Once they have safely activated an avalanche, they re-open the area to visitors to enjoy winter activities such as hiking, backcountry camping and skiing.

Before you play Avalanche Blaster, activate the Avalanche Management Tutorial.

Read through the information to learn about weather patterns, weak bond layers, mountain slopes, testing avalanche hazard levels and managing avalanche control using explosive devices.

In Avalanche Blaster, you zoom into areas of a mountain face. After you've zoomed in, you are given information about the weather, snow depth and mountain slope, and asked if an avalanche needs to be triggered. If you click "Yes," the screen returns to the mountain face overview, and a missile is fired at the area, starting an avalanche. Then you move onto another section of the mountain.

A Help button is available to give you more information to make your decision about whether or not to trigger an avalanche.