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.