Avalanche awareness

Living in Colorado Avalanche awareness is par and parcel with living here in the mountains but for those of you not from here and or, may someday end up in the mountains let me share a few tips...

From the group Avalanche.org they make three true statements on their home page.

Avalanche conditions are predictable.... Many states post Avalanche danger zones on their web sites so don't assume just because a slope was stable the last time you were there it's still that way now...

90% of Avalanche victims die in slides they or a party member triggered themselves...

After 35 minutes of being buried a victim only has a 27% chance of survival...

Now I'm not going to just copy and paste everything they have on their website fact is they have done a damn good job of making it easy and simple to learn
Avalanche Awareness Tut
So I urge you to take a few minutes and visit the site... and lets all stay safe in snow country this year

reply to post by HardCorps


Nice post. Used to live in Montana myself and had exactly one of the scenario's happen to me and 2 friends skiing Bear Tooth Pass back in late 90's. We had transponders on us and myself and another friend had just made it about half way down and stopped next to a large outcropping. Our third friend made a single cut from his jump in and a football field shelf broke off just below him. He managed to sit down and stop. My friend and I ducked back against the outcropping and it went over and around us and took insane numbers of trees out. Probably one of the most powerful forces I have witnessed first hand...just as scary as the tornado that went through my back yard last year.

reply to post by Vasa Croe


My big scare happened in Wyoming...
Just zipping along on my snowmobile having a blast... then I hear what sounds like a fright train coming up behind me... I look back over my shoulder and the entire shelf is giving way...

That was one of those... first you say it, then you do it... moments!

Lucky for me my hand is smarter than the rest of me... It just twisted the throttle as far it'd go... for those of you who don't know snowmobiles are fast... but still I only just managed to get out of the way...

That was six years ago , scared me so bad it was only last year I started riding again

reply to post by HardCorps


Great post. It amazes me the blatant disrespect some people have for the mountain. Seems like most "dude bros" can't wait to shred the gnar or hit some epic pow with little regard for their surroundings. Even the pros can find themselves in trouble in a hurry. I still recall that awesome Utah storm of 2005, I hit up the Canyons resort in Park City. I learned later that day that 6 guys died on one of the peaks boarding where they were explicitly told to avoid...I know resorts try to do the best they can but common sense should step in at some point.

reply to post by DrumStickNinja


I have to admit I'm every bit as guilty... and to make matters worse I grew up in the Rocky's so I should know better...

Still... your out in back country having fun with your buds or your babe... and you forget how unforgiving the mountain can be... and she is a harsh mistress.... drop your guard for one second and you'll be nothing more than a red stain on the rocks

8 days into the new year and already we've had 5 people die in Avalanches.
yesterday we added our second fatality here in Colorado .

three others were trapped with him and later rescued.
The CNN report said,

"This (avalanche) was most likely triggered by the people who got caught in it," Greene said.

Two of those caught in the avalanche were on skis, the other two were on snowboards, according to Jessie Mosher of the Eagle County Sheriff's Office. She did not know what Seibert was doing.

full story here

This snow season only just started and already the threat levels rated from 1 through 5 currently sit at a 3 for serviette

please take this thread seriously even if your not planning to come to snow country now it wouldn't hurt to learn a new, "Just in Case" skill, right?

reply to post by HardCorps


It's that season in Alaska too.
The one thing that stood out to me during all of the avalanche demos that I have seen is to actually take the time to do your pit dig test. It's going to tell you what you need to know about the slope you are on. It's been rather warm up here lately and all it's going to take is another hard freeze and a fresh blanket of snow to create perfect avalanche conditions. We seem to have at least one death almost every year in the area. It also cuts off the highway from time to time. Thanks for the info and the reminder to be safe!

Even in Britain avalanches are a growing problem - perhaps in part because more and more people go into our hills in winter, and there is still a misconception that avalanches are what you get in big mountains, not on our wee hills ....

www.mcofs.org.uk...

btw, not wishing to derail this thread, but the biggest avalanche disaster in British history occurred on the south coast of England!

en.wikipedia.org...