Avalanche Safety Series Part 3: Know Before You Go
Until recently, good-quality backcountry kit and information was hard to obtain; backcountry skiing was generally limited to hut to hut touring that occurred in the snow stable months of late spring, when the layers of the snowpack had settled out and the danger of avalanche had reduced significantly. Today’s equipment allows us incredible access and freedom in the mountains, opening up large areas of complicated terrain.
FATMAP provides us with a planning tool that enables us to examine avalanche terrain in previously undreamt of detail; showing us avalanche pathways, terrain traps and avalanche slopes above 30 degrees. But it can be a double-edged sword, with information so rich and detailed, it provides a tool for a rider to place themselves in complex, high consequence avalanche terrain perhaps too quickly and efficiently.
We’re not as good as we think we are at keeping safe in avalanche terrain. The truth is, we just get lucky a lot of the time. As a species, we’re hardwired to have an over inflated opinion of our abilities. Overconfidence bias means it is not in our nature to think we perform poorly at tasks. Hence, we all think we’re great at driving, singing karaoke and making good choices whilst travelling in avalanche terrain. One way we can help counter this bias is by imposing rules upon ourselves.
A comprehensive toolkit of avalanche knowledge isn’t in the scope of FATMAP to provide. However in 2004, a group of avalanche professionals in America came up with 5 simple rules that they could give to high school students living in ski towns. They are key take home rules that are valuable to us all regardless of age and objectives in the mountains. It’s called: Know Before You Go (KBYG).
Following the below 5 simple KBYG rules will go a long way to keeping you safe.
5 rules to safer travel in avalanche terrain:
Get the Gear: Always carry an avalanche transceiver, shovel & probe, and critically, know how to use them. Simple? Actually, no. We run dozens of rescue scenarios on our avalanche courses every year where people get to test their beacon skills in as close to realistic situations as we can make possible. The result is often pretty messy. The age and quality of the equipment some people turn up with can be alarming. If your beacon isn’t a 3 antennae digital model, and critically you’re not practicing with it on a regular basis, then you don’t have the right equipment. Tactical digging techniques are arguably more important than knowing how to use your transceiver. Complete multiple burials are complicated but thankfully rare. As a recreational skier you should focus your time on being really proficient with searching and digging strategies for a single victim. Avalanche equipment has moved on massively in recent years and your ownership and operation of this life saving equipment should reflect that. Regardless: practice, practice, practice.
Get the Training: We don’t know what we don’t know. 9 out of 10 people caught in an avalanche have triggered that avalanche themselves, or someone in their group has set it off. If we learn about avalanches, we can avoid getting caught in avalanches. Avalanche skills and knowledge are like any other craft; they require study and practice. We do not assimilate these skills by osmosis. Because an individual is a highly experienced climber or rider, it does not follow that they have a strong set of avalanche skills. Our advanced Level 2 courses book up several months in advance. That’s because students on these courses have already gone through a two-day Level 1 course with us, and in so doing have seen how important it is to have a comprehensive avalanche skill set. Knowledge is king in the avalanche world. Take a course.
Get the Forecast: This rule is free and very useful, especially in the European Alps and North America where we have detailed avalanche forecasts posted daily by experts. Europe doesn’t have an avalanche forecasting problem; it has a public engagement problem. Europeans are drowning in available information but starving for knowledge! We constantly fail to draw out the vital nuanced information from our bulletins. Avalanche forecasters diligently provide us with a vast array of information in their forecast in the hope that we will break it down and maximize those pearls of wisdom. Snowpit profiles, mountain weather trends and blogs are all there for the taking. Every day in winter the avalanche forecast gives us high quality, targeted and time relevant information: so use all of it. It actually works in conjunction with Rule 2: if we understand what we’re looking for, then the avalanche forecast becomes a super-rich source for what we’re seeking: current, localized trustworthy information relating to a specific type of avalanche problem.
Get the Picture: So we have the gear, we have some education which means we can fully interpret the avalanche forecast that we also have, but we still have to pay attention when we’re in the mountains. Is there snow being transported and causing wind loading? What direction is that wind coming from? Is it blowing from the forecasted direction or has it changed? Am I seeing shooting cracks? Why am I sweating in this light fleece? Wasn’t the forecast for it to stay cold today? I’m seeing avalanche debris… is that recent? Regardless of the forecast, the very best information: bullseye information, comes from what we’re seeing as we travel through the terrain. It doesn’t get more relevant and targeted than that. For this reason, it’s vital to keep looking and asking stability questions throughout our day in the mountains.
Get out of Harm’s Way: The final rule. Always follow basic travel protocols that limit exposure of you and your group to the avalanche hazard. Avoid skiing above or into terrain traps, don’t loiter on or beneath avalanche pathways, and negotiate risky terrain one at a time. Always favour the lower consequence option if it exists. To put it bluntly, if you follow this last rule and you screw up, only one member of your party will be avalanched leaving the rest of the party to conduct a rescue.
In summary, through a combination of the right equipment, training and knowledge, we can then work with a detailed avalanche forecast (that we constantly challenge and update through our own mountain observations), whilst at the same time employing safe travel protocols, we should be able to stay safe in avalanche terrain.
Avalanche Geeks are the avalanche safety partner of FATMAP, an avalanche education company that provides courses and training for the public and mountain professionals in the European Alps & Scotland.
