Smart Santa

By Doug Chabot

Published in the December 9, 2011 magazine CARVE.

Christmas is around the corner and everyone will be scrambling for last minute gifts.  How about getting your backcountry partner something that could save his or her life?  Skiers, snowboarders and snowmobilers all need the same safety equipment.  Here are a few ideas to help alleviate Christmas gift stress and backcountry danger with the same present. 

Inclinometer: $20

An inclinometer is the cheapest avalanche insurance you can buy.  Avalanches happen on slopes steeper than 30 degrees.  Below that is not steep enough to slide.  The only way to never get caught in an avalanche is to avoid avalanche terrain.  The inclinometer identifies that terrain.  Eyeballing steepness is not accurate and in most cases it’s not even close.  Your partner claimed to ski a 50 degree couloir?  The inclinometer can fact check the biggest boast.  When the avalanche danger is high, this cheap piece of plastic will let you know the difference between a 32 degree and a 28 degree slope, a 4 degree spread that tells you whether or not you are in avalanche terrain.

Snow Saw: $30-45

A snow saw is a useful tool for performing stability tests.  All stability tests involve isolating various sized blocks of snow and a saw cuts with precision.  Since stability tests provide important decision-making data it’s imperative to not be sloppy.  Making a crooked column or rough cuts will give inaccurate results.  Some saws attach to ski poles which extend their reach and look like a medieval weapon.  This attachment is very helpful in cutting larger blocks for the Extended Column Test or Rutschblock,  and the pole/saw combo can buzz through a small cornice with ease.

Shovel: $45-$75

Carrying a sturdy shovel is crucial to avalanche rescue.  Our partners rely on us to dig them out if they get buried, and vice versa.  Plastic shovels are light but not as beefy or functional as a metal one.  Metal is king.  A metal shovel can cut through dense avalanche debris quickly and rarely breaks.  Get the one with the biggest scoop that will fit in your pack.  Some have telescoping handles which means less bending over, a bonus for bad backs.  Others have D-shaped handles providing a more secure grip with icy gloves.  A shovel is only good if you carry it, so get something that is not too cumbersome.  If your partner has a garden trowel sized shovel, make sure you swap him for your big, metal digging machine and remind him about being dug up one trowel-full of avalanche snow at a time.  

Avalanche Probe: $45-$90

Avalanche probes looks like a collapsible tent poles on steroids.  Measuring 6-9 feet in length they snap together with a cable and allow pinpointing a buried victim.  Pinpointing is essential; because once we start digging it’s easy to miss a body by inches.  Minutes matter in avalanche rescue and a good probe saves time.  The expensive ones are made of carbon fiber which is exceptionally strong and lightweight.  Metal probes are standard and each manufacturer has their own proprietary locking mechanism.  Regardless of the type, everyone in the backcountry should have one.  Some shovels come with a probe stashed in the shaft, but I’ve found these straw sized probes too fragile for real rescue work.  Probes come in different sizes (190-300 cm) with longer generally being better.  Some ski poles screw together and double as an avalanche probe, but these should only be used as a backup because they are shorter and more difficult to push through the snow.

Avalanche Transceiver: $200-$490

An avalanche transceiver is the most expensive safety item that every backcountry user needs.  A transceiver (aka beacon) is strapped to the body and can transmit and receive a signal within a range of 100 to 200+ feet.  All brands of beacons use the same frequency and are compatible with each other.  Everyone wears a transmitting beacon, and when someone gets buried in an avalanche all survivors switch to receive mode, spread out across the debris and begin searching.  This is the only reliable way to find a buried person.  Some transceivers are simple to operate while others are more complex. Beacons with multiple antennae can pinpoint a buried person quicker than a single antenna one.  Some have a built in compass, can find multiple victims, are GPS units, and are only a few years away from making a cup of espresso.  There’s a fine line between technology being too confusing and making search times faster.  More features are not necessarily better, but no matter which beacon you buy they all work best in practiced hands.  

Avalung: $130-$260

The Avalung, made by Black Diamond, is a snorkel-like tube that is either worn as a bandolier or integrated into a backpack, depending on the model.  It allows an avalanche victim to breathe fresh air directly from the snowpack. Avalanche debris is 40-50% air and victims die of carbon dioxide poisoning from breathing their own exhaled breath.  This Avalung gives the victim much higher odds of surviving a prolonged burial by venting exhalation away from the intake.  People have been found alive after two hours of burial with an avalung.  Normally, less than 1% survive a two hour avalanche burial.  

Avalanche Airbag: $680-$999

Avalanche airbags are a special backpack with a ripcord that deploys a durable balloon.  The balloon reduces burial depth and can even keep you on top of the debris.  A time consuming part of a rescue is finding the victim.  A colorful airbag sticking out of the snow eliminates a beacon search and speeds up the rescue.  Airbags are new in North America, but have been in use in Europe since 1990 and the survival statistics are impressive.  They should not be used in place of a transceiver, but are an effective piece of equipment.  The pack has a small cylinder of compressed gas to inflate the bag.  Some models can be refilled using readily available compressed air while others require an entire new canister.  Avalanche Airbags save lives and are a worthy addition to the safety equipment quiver.

Avalanche Advisory: Free

All the equipment in the world won’t undo a poor decision.  The Avalanche Center gives pertinent snowpack and weather information every morning help people make good decisions and stay safe in the backcountry.  Read the advisory online or sign up your partner at www.mtavalanche.com.  Even cheapskates can be smart.

Avalanche Safety Trifecta

By Doug Chabot

Published in the December 2011 issue of Snowmobile Storm Adventure Magazine

Avalanches are deadly.  They kill more people on public lands than fires, lightning, floods or any other natural event.  In the last 10 years 114 snowmobilers have died in avalanches in the United States.  Triggering a slide can be terrifying.  Getting caught is horrific.  Digging out your partner is hell.  Assessing snow stability is a difficult skill that’s never mastered.  Like every avalanche forecaster I spend most of my days studying snow, yet I still sometimes get it wrong.  We all make mistakes.  No one leaves the house thinking they will get caught in a slide.  No one plans on car accidents.  But they happen.  Even the best prepared get caught off guard, but there are three reliable, proven techniques to improve the odds of surviving in the backcountry.

1. Only put one person at a time on a slope.
2. Recent avalanche activity is Mother Nature’s number one sign that slopes are unstable.
3. Everyone needs to carry rescue gear.

We could almost halve snowmobiler avalanche fatalities by doing one simple thing:  one person at a time on a slope.  Since many snowmobile accidents involve multiple victims, exposing one rider at a time would drastically reduce the number of fatalities.  We do not have to buy special gear, take an avalanche course, read the avalanche advisory, or stop high marking in order to take turns playing in avalanche terrain.  There are countless stories of riders stuck on a slope being killed by an avalanche triggered by others heading up to help.  The more people riding on a slope, the more potential triggers there are hunting for the weak spot.  Multiple burials almost always end up in fatalities because avalanche rescue takes time, time the buried victims do not have.  One person at a time on a slope leaves others in a better position to be rescuers if something goes wrong.  Armed with this tidbit of lifesaving information, you now have a bullet proof excuse to be lazy and let your friend struggle alone to free his welded sled: you are the rescue team.

The beauty of snowmobiling is that riders travel dozens of miles over many aspects and elevations to find great snow.  Although riders see a lot of terrain they routinely miss the mountain’s biggest red flag:  recent avalanche activity is Mother Nature’s number one sign that slopes are unstable.  Observant riders notice important, bulls-eye data on snow stability.  Triggering small slides is a warning that bigger slopes are unstable.  Additionally, all avalanches indicate that adjacent and similar slopes are ripe to slide.  High marking or even riding on a slope next to an avalanche or on one with the same aspect or elevation is risky business.  That’s like diving into the ocean for a swim while there’s blood swirling around from a recent shark attack.  I don’t recommend it.  Snowpack layers are relatively uniform across mountain ranges and an avalanche indicates with 100% certainty that slopes are unstable.  There’s no need to dig a snowpit or call the avalanche center because you’ve been handed a free piece of highly reliable information warning you to play elsewhere. 

The third life-saving piece of information isn’t free but worth the cost: everyone needs to carry an avalanche transceiver (aka beacon), shovel and probe.  This equipment will cost $400-$500, but that’s a small price of admission to staying alive.  Serious risk takers owe it to themselves and their families to stack the odds in their favor.  A person completely buried in an avalanche has an 85% chance of survival if dug up within 15 minutes.  This is only possible if everyone carries  rescue gear.  Fifteen minutes goes fast.  A beacon search takes time and practice to perform.  Shoveling is back-breaking aerobic work.  A probe can pinpoint the victim, saving valuable minutes.  Kayakers wear life vests, mountain bikers wear helmets and snowmobilers should wear avalanche transceivers.  Avalanches are violent, tumbling riders and separating them from their sleds.  Everyone must carry  shovel and probe in a backpack firmly attached the body.  Rescue equipment is useless if it’s under your hood or strapped to the back of your sled.  It must be accessible during the heat of battle.

Although simple, this trifecta of three precautions can keep you and your partner from dying. 

Tune your skis, tune your mind.  

By Doug Chabot

Published in the November 18, 2011 magazine CARVE.

              

In the summers I decompress and try not to think about avalanches.  The problem is that I’m almost too good at it.  Even after 12 years of forecasting, each fall my brain is fuzzy and rusty when it comes to snow.  It’s an annual predicament that I’ll never get used to, but luckily there’s a simple solution that works every October-- I teach an avalanche course.  Teaching forces me to remember things I’m embarrassed I forgot as well as become familiar with new research and techniques that I was too busy to digest last winter.  The autumn is time to tune my skis and tune my mind.

If you are in a similar boat and need to brush up on avalanche skills, or even get educated for the first time, you are in luck.  The Avalanche Center is offering an entire slate of avalanche courses in the next few months.  Our most popular is a one-hour avalanche awareness lecture, a good primer before heading out into the backcountry.   Skiers, boarders and snowmobilers who play in avalanche terrain should go even further and take a course with a field component. 

Avalanches are all about timing—sometimes it’s safe to play in avalanche terrain and other times it’s not.  The key is to know the difference.   We offer an Introduction to Avalanches with Field Course a few times throughout the winter to help us make that distinction. This course involves five hours of lectures covering avalanche terrain recognition; the affect weather has on avalanche hazard; the development of the mountain snowpack; decision making skills; and basic search and rescue procedures. Once outside we dig in the snow, learn stability tests, practice safe travel techniques and do a mock rescue. The lectures are an important foundation, but meaningful learning takes place when they are coupled with a field course.  Equally, or possibly even more important than you taking the class, is getting your partner to tag along too; your survival could depend on their performance. 

This year we are offering two sessions of our Introduction to Avalanches with Field Course at MSU for skiers and snowboarders.  Evening lectures on Wednesday and Thursday, November 30 and December 1, are followed with a field course on Saturday at Bridger Bowl.  This class repeats again on January 25, 26 and 28.

We are also offering multiple Snowmobiler Introduction to Avalanches with Field Courses too.  Avalanches don’t care if you’re a skier or snowmobiler—the conditions for triggering them are the same.  However, traveling in avalanche terrain and assessing snow stability on a sled is very different than a skier.  These courses are offered Thursday and Friday, December 15 and 16 in West Yellowstone; in Bozeman over the weekend of January 6 and 7; in Cody on January 15 and 16 and also in Dillon, February 4 and 5. 

Check the Calendar on the Education page of our website for more information and to register.

Besides taking avalanche classes there are a few other ways to help sharpen your avalanche focus.  First, we have a webpage linking to some of the best online avalanche tutorials.  Although they are no substitute for hands on experience, they are still worthy of a tour.  And if you’re someone who likes having a few books to thumb through, I can recommend two.  Staying Alive in Avalanche Terrain, by Bruce Tremper offers in depth analysis on avalanche formation and backcountry travel.  The other book is Snow Sense by Fesler and Fredston.  Karl Birkeland and I helped edit the new edition of Snow Sense which was just released in October.  It’s a small, 126 page book chock full of information on terrain, weather, snowpack, decision making, backcountry travel and rescue.   And for those who like watching a DVD, there’s The Fine Line by rockymountainsherpas.com.  This film is the best avalanche educational movie on the market.  The footage is spectacular and the message is top notch. 

Whether you take a class, read a book, study online or watch a movie, never forget that avalanche conditions change rapidly.  Our job at the Gallatin National Forest Avalanche Center is to help you make good backcountry travel decisions by providing relevant and timely avalanche advisories every morning, all winter long.  Sign up on our website for a free email subscription or bookmark the advisory page to stay updated on conditions.   Get tuned up and let’s all have a safe winter.

Avalanche Education

By: Eric Knoff

Gallatin National Forest Avalanche Center 
Published in the November 2011 issue of MSA News

The Gallatin National Forest Avalanche Center, in conjunction with the Friends of the GNFAC, is dedicated to providing avalanche education to all backcountry users that enjoy the vast outdoor resources of southwest Montana.  Attending an avalanche awareness program, whether it’s a one hour awareness talk or a three day course, is a great way to become informed on how to travel safely in the backcountry. 

Attending a class with your riding partners or family members is a productive way to become familiar with avalanche awareness, and is a great way to start out the season.  Classes start in mid November and continue into February.  The education schedule for this season’s programs is as follows:

Big Sky

Basic 1 hour awareness @ Grizzly Outfitters, Big Sky, MT Wednesday, November 16^th, 7:00pm-8:00pm

Big Timber

Basic 1 hour awareness @ Big Timber High School Wednesday, January 11^th, 7:00pm-8:00pm

Billings

Basic 1 hour awareness @ The Basecamp, Billings, MT Thursday, November 17^th, 6:30pm-7:30pm

Bozeman

Basic avalanche awareness course – Two evening classroom sessions @ MSU followed by a field day.

1^st classroom session – Wednesday, November 30^th, 7:00pm-9:30pm @ Leon Johnson Hall room 339

2^nd classroom session – Thursday, December 1^st, 7:00pm-9:30pm @ Leon Johnson Hall room 339

Field Session – Saturday, December 3^rd, 9:00am-3:00pm @ Bridger Bowl.

Basic 1 hour awareness @ REI Bozeman, MT Wednesday, December 7^th, 6:30pm-8pm

AAI Avalanche Level 1 @ Bridger Bowl – 3 Days

Friday, January 6^th, 8:00am-4:00pm

Saturday, January 7^th, 8:00am-4:00pm

Sunday, January 8^th, 8:00am-4:00pm

Avalanche awareness for snowmobilers – 2 days

Saturday, January 7^th, 12:00pm-4:30pm @ Bozeman Public Library

Sunday, January 8^th, 8:00am-3:00pm @ location TBD

Basic 1 hour awareness @ REI Bozeman, MT Wednesday, January 11^th, 6:30pm-8:00pm

Basic avalanche awareness course – Two evening classroom sessions followed by a field day. 

1^st classroom session – Wednesday, January 25^th, 7:00pm-9:30pm @ location TBD

2^nd classroom session – Thursday, January 26^th, 7:00pm-9:30pm @ location TBD

Field Session – Saturday, January 28^th, 9:00am-3:00pm @ Bridger Bowl

Advanced Avalanche Workshop – Two evening classroom sessions followed by one field day.

1^st classroom session – Wednesday, February 1^st, 7:00pm-9:30pm @ location TBD

2^nd classroom session – Thursday, February 2^nd, 7:00pm-9:30pm @ location TBD

Field session – Saturday, February 4^th, 9:00am-4:00pm @ Bridger Bowl

AAI Avalanche Level 2 @ Bridger Bowl – 4 days

Friday, February 17^th, 8:00am-4:00pm

Saturday, February 18^th, 8:00am-4:00pm

Sunday, February 19^th, 8:00am-4:00pm

Monday, February 20^th, 8:00am-4:00pm

AAI Avalanche Level 1@ Bridger Bowl – 4 days

Thursday, February 23^rd, 8:00am-4:00pm

Friday, February 24^th, 8:00am-4:00pm

Saturday, February 25^th, 8:00am-4:00pm

Sunday, February 26^th, 8:00am-4:00pm

Helena

Basic 1 hour awareness @ The Basecamp, Helena, MT Wednesday, November 9^th, 6:30pm-7:30pm

West Yellowstone

Avalanche Awareness Course for Snowmobile Guides/Public  - 2 days

Classroom session – Thursday, December 15^th, 12:00pm-4:30pm @ Holiday Inn in West Yellowstone

Field session – Friday, December 16^th, 8:00am-3:00pm @ location TBD

For more information on the classes and courses listed: Please visit your website at mtavalanche.com.