THIS is avalanche country, and it seems that even the locals with four legs have to pitch in when something goes wrong in the mountains.
I spent the day sliding on the white stuff at Marmot Basin, the alpine area a 30-minute drive from Jasper, and while I was getting ready to go out there was a member of the mountain patrol preparing for a day on the hill with his rescue dog.
Marmot Basin is inside the boundary of Jasper National Park, with the slopes divided into four defined areas which make it very easy to get around, but I spent my morning on the baby hill having my first snowboarding lesson.
I have been skiing for 20 years, but decided it was time to see what all the fuss was about, so dumped my skis for a lolly-pink snowboard and headed out to experience sliding with both feet anchored to a single plank of wood.
For a long time I've been told that while skiing is easier to learn it's harder to perfect and snowboarding is more difficult to learn but easier to master, and now I believe it.
I had a three-hour lesson and didn't make it away from the magic carpet in all that time, and during my morning I was never comfortable or confident about what I was doing.
It was easy to do the toe turns, which took me to the right, but I struggled turning left when I had to lean hard on my heals and push my weight back because that whole sensation just felt wrong, awkward and downright dangerous.
Skiing is much easier to master and as soon as you can snow plough - the move where you force your feet apart but point the toes together - you're in control, can stop yourself, and get yourself out of most mountainside situations.
There seems to be no similar move in snowboarding, and after a while I was struggling just to get the messages to the muscles in my legs to do what was was necessary to turn towards the left.
So I thanked my instructor, headed back inside to exchange my snowboard for some skis, and went back out to see more of the mountain on equipment I could control without thinking about it.
And next week when I get to Kananaskis, another Alberta ski resort but south of here down near Calgary, I will be keen to line up at the ski desk in the rental store happy that my snowboarding itch has been scratched.
