Expert skiers and snowboarders crave the challenges of pristine terrain and untouched powder. Extreme snowmobilers challenge the steepest virgin slopes. Skilled climbers seek the unscaled heights. What all these people have in common is that the best places to practice these sports all have slopes between 35 and 40 degrees, the perfect slope for avalanches. Avalanches kill 150 people worldwide each year. Participants in these four recreational sports alone make up 83 percent of all avalanche fatalities.
Prevention is the best way to avoid becoming a statistic. However, even if you are caught in an avalanche, there are things you can do to increase your chances of survival.
Types of avalanches
Loose snow avalanches are the most common type of avalanche. Fortunately, they also give you the best chance of surviving. They are released from freshly fallen snow on steep terrain.
Much more dangerous are slab avalanches, which cause 90 percent of all avalanche fatalities. In a slab avalanche, large areas of what seemed to be firm snow can release almost instantaneously. The moment you hear the muffled thunk somewhere deep below you, the slab of snow you are standing on has already fractured and is sliding downhill at an increasing speed. In about five seconds, that slab of snow will be rushing down the slope at over 120 kilometres an hour, carrying you and trees and a lot of other things that can hurt you badly along with it.
Equipment
If you will be going into avalanche-prone regions, you should always take three pieces of equipment with you:
* An avalanche transceiver (sometimes called an avalanche beacon)
* A metal shovel
* A collapsible pole
An avalanche transceiver will help rescuers to locate you if you are buried in an avalanche. When you are buried, time is of the essence. Your best chance of surviving is if rescuers can find you quickly. Some transceivers also have a balloon which inflates automatically and floats to the top of the avalanche snow, hopefully to be an effective marker. Remember to set the beacon to transmit during your outing. Deaths have occurred because transmitters were switched to receive.
A portable shovel which is made of metal is much less likely to snap than a lighter, plastic shovel. Avalanche snow packs like concrete. It takes at least ten minutes just to remove a single square metre of avalanche snow; but if you are trying to clear it with your hands, it will take at least 45 minutes, probably longer.
A collapsible pole consists of several short lengths of tubular steel which can be fitted together to make a very long pole. Another version lets you remove the grips and baskets from ski poles and fit them together. You use this pole to probe the deep snow for the buried victim.
Always wearing warm, climate-appropriate clothing and using auto-release bindings on your skis or snowboard should go without saying. If you are caught in any kind of uncontrolled fall, skis and snowboards which don’t auto-release can make that fall much worse. If you go out into the backcountry while inappropriately dressed, you don’t need an avalanche to put your life at risk!
Each person in a group should have their own set of avalanche equipment. Even if the person caught in the avalanche is wearing a transceiver, it doesn’t help if no one else has one to pick up the signal. If part of your group is caught in an avalanche, either you will be digging your buddy out or he will be digging you out. It doesn’t help any of you much if the guy with the shovels is the guy who gets caught in the avalanche.
Take these three pieces of avalanche equipment with you every time you go into the backcountry, and practice with them regularly. The one time you think it’s too much bother may be the one time your life will depend on them.
Avalanche survival technology
If you get buried in an avalanche, the avalung buys time for you by improving your air supply. There’s plenty of air even in dense avalanche debris. Avalanche snow often holds as much as 60 or 70 percent air. However, even with an air pocket, you’re going to choke on your own trapped carbon dioxide in fifteen minutes or less.
An avalung works by separating air intake from air outtake. The good air comes directly from the snowpack, through an air intake box on one side of your body. Your exhaled air is redirected to the opposite side of your body at your waist. This keeps the carbon dioxide from building up in your breathing space.
Avalungs have been tested up to two hours of burial, but that’s in controlled situations. It’s still a good bet that with an avalung, you’ll double or triple the amount of time rescuers have to reach you.
Some ski equippers also sell single-use air bag systems that can instantly inflate. Their purpose is to improve your buoyancy when you are trying to keep above the snow. However, avalanches are strong enough to rip your backpack right off your back. Even if they stay on, these inflatable packs could help, but they could also get in the way.
Give serious consideration to wearing a helmet whenever you go to the backcountry. Thirty percent of all avalanche-related deaths are caused by getting hit with something.
If you are caught in an avalanche
This is what it is like to be caught in an avalanche. As you can see, scary things start happening very quickly. Even if you are an expert skier, the avalanche will grab you and pull the rug out from under you.
The first and most important thing is not to panic. You still have choices, but if you panic you will lose all of them.
If you can get off the slab, do it. You have a few seconds before the snow really gets going. It’s going to be very difficult. Most slab fractures also create many smaller slabs along the edges, all of which will be bouncing up and down as the snow moves.
The rules here are different for snowmobilers and for those moving under their own power. If you are on skis or a snowboard and can get your balance, go straight downhill with the slab, then angle to one side toward safe snow. If you are close enough to the uphill break point, you can try running for it. However, if you fall, you’ve already lost your speed.
If you are on a snowmobile, go full throttle in the direction you were heading. If you were headed uphill or across the slope, you have a chance of reaching safe snow above or beside the avalanche. If you were headed downhill, you can try to angle off, but you might also spread the fracture area. If you know the area and there are no cliffs ahead, you can point straight downhill and try to outrun it. Give the snowmobile all the speed you can. You’ll need it.
You’ll probably have a few seconds to think what you’re going to do next. Yell like crazy. The others in your group may not have realized you’re in trouble yet.
Drop your ski poles. They’re useless and they’ll just get in your way. If you have an avalung, grab the tub into your teeth. If you have an air bag system, deploy it. However, this is not the time to doublecheck your transceiver! If it was set correctly to transmit earlier, it will still be on transmit now. Don’t try to second-guess yourself now, when you aren’t thinking completely clearly!
If you can’t get off the slab, try to keep from being hit by anything. Trees and rocks become deadly projectiles at avalanche speeds, but if you can grab a tree quickly and hold onto it, it can shield you from a lot of other things. If the tree survives the avalanche, you may even end up with a large space of less-packed snow to the lee of the tree. In non-avalanche conditions, these tree wells can trap and even kill an unwary skier or snowboarder. During an avalanche, they can save your life.
Even if the tree snaps, you’ve still bought time for a lot of snow to go past you and below you. Snow that is below you can’t bury you.
It’s vitally important to try not to get buried by snow. The largest avalanches can release as much as 300,000 cubic metres of snow. Imagine twenty football fields packed with snow as tall as you are, all hurtling downhill at speeds of up to 120 kilometres per hour. When that snow stops, it’s going to pack you in like concrete. The deeper you end up, the less chance you have of surviving.
“Swim” for it! The same things you learned in the water will keep you above most of the snowpack. However, snow is much less dense than water, so you’re going to have to work a lot harder. If your skis are still attached, kick them off, just the same as you would kick off your boots if you were trying to keep afloat in water. Swim as hard as you can. If you can keep your head above the snow, you’ll be able to breathe without problems even after the snow hardens around you. If you can clear your arms as well, you’ll be able to help dig yourself out.
If you do get buried in an avalanche, the most important thing is to conserve air. You’ll already be short of breath even before you get buried. When you’re tumbled by an avalanche, snow gets into everything, including your mouth and nose. No matter how often you spit it out, you’ll just get more snow rammed in there again. You won’t catch a break until the avalanche starts running out of steam, and that’s right before you get buried.
Before the snow can settle around you, take a deep breath and hold one arm crossed in front of your face. This will create an air space and delay formation of an ice mask as the snow melts and freezes where you breathe.
Thrust the other arm upward. (Take your best guess which way is up.) That way your skiing partner can see where you are. It’s going to be nearly impossible to dig yourself out of the snow, but if you can get an arm clear, at least you have a chance.
Once you are buried, don’t waste your breath yelling. Snow is a good insulator of sound. Odds are good no one is going to hear you until they are right on top of you.
If you’re not on the slab when it gives way above you, you have two other options. You can try to get out of the way, but you have to do it fast. It will be on top of you in seconds. Alternately, you can take shelter under a strong stone ledge, in an ice crevasse, or in a cave which goes right into the hill. If you’re high enough on the avalanche path, the debris should sweep right by you. It’s a risk, but everything about being caught in an avalanche is a risk.
Rescue
If an avalanche strikes your group and you escape, you’re the rescuer. There is no one else. If you go for help, your friend will be dead before you can get back.
As soon as you realize your friend is in trouble, take a moment to make sure you are in the clear. Then keep your eyes on your friend and mark where he or she ends up.
Turn your transceiver to receive. After the avalanche has stopped, go to the last place you saw your friend. If you can’t see them or any visual signal, work your way in wide circles around the immediate area, using the transponder as your guide. Cover as much ground as you can at first, then narrow in on the signal.
When you have located the signal, use your pole to find your friend’s exact location. Then start digging as hard and fast as you can.
Prevention
Once you are caught in an avalanche, rescue is a race against time. It’s much better to avoid avalanches in the first place.
Avoid the backcountry during avalanche weather. Slab avalanches are caused when a weak layer of snow deep under the current snowfall gives way under the new weight of snow. These layers of poorly bonded snow are caused by repeated freeze-thaw cycles, especially when followed by heavy snowfall. They can also be triggered by repeated snowstorms over a short period of time, or when wind has caused snow to pile up in a bowl. If any of these weather conditions exists, avoid slopes which have not been groomed.
Avalanches, like lightning, tend to strike in the same places repeatedly. If you see signs of previous avalanches, avoid the area.
Use ridgelines wherever possible. Be especially wary of chutes and bowls. Practice group management whenever traversing, so that each member of the group individually clears the area before the next one starts.
A final word of caution
Resorts often close off slopes or prohibit access to parts of the backcountry. This is not because they want to spoil your vacation, but because they want to preserve it. The local ski staff know which slopes are prone to unstable snow buildup and avalanches. Respect their judgement. It may just save your life.
