Backcountry Avalanche Safety - Once You're There

Once You're There.....

1. Always carry avalanche equipment, including avalanche transceivers, probes, and shovels (in addition to basic camping gear, extra clothing, high-energy food, and plenty of water). Every member of the group needs to carry all three of these avalanche rescue items, and know how to use them.

2. Be aware of your surroundings. Stay alert, and constantly be on the lookout for information about the environment that indicates the potential for a slide. This includes recent avalanche activity and changes in terrain, snowpack, and the weather.

3. Analyze the snowpack stability. As with studying terrain features, reading snowpack takes years of experience. There are, however, several tests that reveal the layers of a snow field and can help assess risks involved with unstable snow. These include ski-pole tests, snowpit tests, resistance tests, and "shear" tests. In the National Ski Patrol’s avalanche courses, students learn how to conduct these tests and have the opportunity to see the snowpack firsthand.

4. Cross potential avalanche slopes one at a time. If you doubt a slope's stability but still intend to cross it, only expose one person at a time to the potential for danger. When climbing or traversing, each person should be at least 100 yards from the next person. Travelers should climb steep narrow chutes one at a time, and when descending the slope, ski it alone. This not only minimizes the number of people who might get caught (and maximizes the number of people available for rescue), but it also reduces the stress put on the snowpack.

5. Have the courage to know when you shouldn't go. In the words of Chuck Tolton, ski patrol director at Copper Mountain, Colorado, "No turns are worth putting friends and family through the ordeal of your death."

       
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