Anatomy of a Slide (Cont.)

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Outside Magazine February 2000

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Anatomy of a Slide (Cont.)
Don't Be Darwin's Fool: Avalanche-safety Wisdom to Help You Survive with the Fittest

The odds might seem tempting: if you get totally buried in an avalanche, your chance of dying is merely 28 percent. Not bad. You figure you'll buy some safety in the form of an avalanche beacon and be on your way. Well, first consider one other cheery stat: Nobody who's been buried under more than seven feet of snow in a North American slide has ever been rescued—transceiver or no. The weight crushes the victim's chest, preventing even the slimmest possibility of drawing another breath. "The compression is unreal," says Jill Fredston, coauthor of the authoritative Snow Sense: A Guide To Evaluating Snow Avalanche Hazard (Alaska Mountain Safety Center, 1999). "It's like those pig-piles when you were a kid."

Indeed, crucial as safety equipment is for mountaineers and backcountry skiers and boarders (see "Stayin' Alive," previous page), don't assume that a beacon will save your bacon. Simply put, when you go off-piste, you assume risk. "You can learn to recognize avalanche terrain and then just choose to avoid it," says Karl Birkeland, director of the Gallatin National Forest Avalanche Center in Bozeman, Montana. "But that's not the reality. Most of us want to ski that terrain."

Boost your odds by learning how to determine snow stability and pick sensible routes. To start, study the following bare-bones lesson plan, drawn up compliments of Fredston and Birkeland. To master these skills, take an avalanche safety course, read Fredston's book, study snowpack on flatter terrain, play hide-and-seek with your transceiver, practice rescues, and then, when conditions allow...get out and enjoy the pow.

FINDING YOUR WAY

Slope Angle
Though avalanches can occur on any slope with an angle of 25 degrees or more, slide activity is greatest at 35 to 40 degrees. Measure the steepest section with an inclinometer.

Slope Size
Fredston reports that about half of all accidents occur on slopes less than 300 feet long. Avoid terrain traps like gullies, where a piddling 20-foot wall could bury you.

Slope Aspect
Leeward slopes collect deposits of dense, windblown snow; shady slopes preserve weak layers. Thus, shady leeward slopes often have weak layers beneath cakes of windblown snow—a perfect recipe for a slab avalanche.

Elevation
The higher you go, the colder it is, and the more likely that weak layers persist underneath a thickening slab of snow.

Slope Anchors
Exposed rocks and trees tend to hold snow in place, while buried obstacles make good trigger points. But if those exposed trees are widely spaced, beware. "If you're enjoying the tree-skiing, it can slide," says Birkeland. "And when it does, you're in a giant bread slicer."

Partner Up
Always travel with a partner, but keep your distance: Traverse or ski iffy slopes one at a time. If one of you gets buried, the other can do the digging.

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