Exploration
7 lessons that could help save your life in an avalanche
Avalanches are one of many dangers in snowy mountains – so it’s vital to know all about them. We asked one survivor and a rescuer how to avoid, escape and survive them.
Johno Verity is a lucky avalanche survivor. Ten years ago he was on New Zealand’s Mount Cook filming a program about people getting caught in avalanches when he suddenly found himself experiencing one himself. Tim Farrar is an avalanche educator with the American Institute for Avalanche Research (AIARE) and helps save lives by teaching about understanding and avoiding the dangers of travelling in avalanche terrain.
We spoke to them both to find out what it feels like to be inside an avalanche and how best to avoid, escape and survive one...
An avalanche in progress
© dahu1 (Camptocamp.org)
Important: Being in avalanche terrain is high risk and the consequences of a poor decision can be catastrophic. The information in this article should not be taken as formal advice. You should take professional avalanche education if you expect to be in such an environment. Find out more here.
1. What it feels like to be in an avalanche
Johno Verity: Once I realised what was happening I was already in the middle of it, sitting up with my snowboard out in front of me, and my thoughts immediately turned to ‘stay on top, stay on top.’ I tried to swim backwards with my arms, which worked for a bit, but I soon completely lost control.
I was flipped onto my front and tonnes of snow started to pile on top of me. That felt chillingly comfortable, but also horrifying as I knew if it stopped I’d be stuck under there. I tried to cover my mouth but I still had snow rammed down my throat. It was incredibly powerful and I felt a massive amount of pressure and darkness.
Just 20cm of this compact stuff can trap you
© Christoffer Sjöström
Tim Farrar: Many survivors say it’s like being entombed in concrete. Once you’re buried you may not even be able to move your smallest finger a millimetre. You struggle to breathe and your eyes, nose, ears and throat can be packed with snow.
2. How an avalanche happens
TF: You need a trigger to initiate an avalanche. They can occur naturally because of new snow, rain, winds or rapid temperature increases; they can be intentionally released by professional mitigation teams in ski areas using artillery, hand charges and other control measures; and outside controlled areas, the most likely triggers are people travelling up and down the slopes.
The two main types of avalanche are loose snow and slab avalanches. Both can be deadly but the latter is usually more destructive because it initially fails as a larger piece of consolidated snow.
A slab avalanche is when a slab of snow breaks free and flows down a slope
© Grant Gunderson
JV: Ours was probably triggered by two of us being together on a powder face, one landing a jump and one doing a big turn. The snow broke up 20m either side and the entire face undulated with the shape of the mountain. Then the air was filled with so much snow I couldn’t see what was going on.
Loose snow avalanches start from a point and gather snow as they descend
© Scientif38
3. How to spot avalanche terrain
TF: The key components are steep terrain of 30-45 degrees plus, unstable snow and a trigger. Again, in the backcountry, we're often the trigger. Very large destructive avalanches can occur when there's massive snowfall with high winds that create a dense slab of snow over a weaker layer deep in the snowpack or at the ground.
A view of a previous avalanche fracture line in Canada's Toba Valley
© Switchback Ent.
4. How to avoid an avalanche
JV: The biggest thing is to learn the conditions that are likely to avalanche and avoid them – and to always question if what you're doing is worth the chances of being entombed in snow. If you do find yourself on a face that you think could release, check your exits - where will the snow go and where are the safe zones? And stay alert, because after the first sign of it, you only have a split second to try to escape.
Taking part in classes in avalanche survival could just save your life
© Vaughan Brookfield/Red Bull Content Pool
TF: Education is the key. You need to understand the avalanche hazard, select terrain accordingly, be humble in the mountains and be willing to change plans. If you go into avalanche terrain your number one goal should be to get home safely, so you owe it to your loved ones to get proper avalanche education before you do. Learn about the hazards and how to avoid or mitigate them. Ski areas have mitigation programmes that reduce but don’t eliminate avalanche hazard. Once you step out of bounds you’re in uncontrolled terrain and much more likely to trigger an avalanche.
Learn how to manage avalanche risk and ski/snowboard with snowboarding legend Xavier De Le Rue in the video below.
4 min
Shred Hacks Episode 5: How to manage avalanche danger
Learn how to manage avalanche risk with snowboarding legend Xavier De Le Rue.
5. How to get out of an avalanche
TF: You only have one to two seconds to respond before the snow accelerates fast enough to sweep you off of your feet. In that fraction of time, try to get off of the moving snow, yell to get your partner's attention and try to deploy your airbag. If you are caught, you may be able to swim or roll out of the debris. If you can’t, then as the debris slows try to create an air pocket with a bent arm in front of your face and thrust a hand toward the surface if you have a sense of where it is. Then, try to relax and hope your partners know how to rescue you. Hopefully, you have all practised these skills again and again throughout the season.
Backpacks that incorporate an avalanche airbag can help prevent burial
© Scott Serfas/Red Bull Content Pool
JV: Try to conserve your energy. I did everything I could to battle it but it had no effect – it just made me more exhausted. Luckily, after I was dragged into a terrain trap in the mountain the massive weight of the snow behind me blasted me out over the lip and onto the surface. I’d been fighting so long I was gasping for air and if I’d been left buried I would have died fast.
6. Kit to take into an avalanche zone
JV: The essentials are a transceiver, probe and shovel. Now I always ride with an ABS (Air Bag System) too – it’s the one thing I didn’t have when I got caught. And it’s no good just having the kit, you need to learn how to use all of it and test it regularly.
Avalanche safety. An absolute must!
© Markus Fischer
TF: A transceiver helps you locate the casualty under the snow, the probe pinpoints their location and then you must shovel them out of the snow. Airbags and avalungs can improve survival rates. Ski patrols and formal rescue operations also use dogs, probe lines and recco receivers. Technologies are always improving but the most effective tool is to get educated, stay informed of hazards, choose terrain accordingly and manage your team to avoid or mitigate the hazard. Regular rescue training will help you be more effective in the event of an avalanche involvement.
7. How to rescue someone from an avalanche
TF: “If you’ve not died from trauma, there is a 90 percent survival rate if rescued in 15 minutes, but that drops to less than half at 30 minutes. This is why it is important to take a professional course to learn rescue skills if you're going into an avalanche area (see www.avtraining.org).
If you do find yourself needing to undertake a rescue, once you've pinpointed the person with your probe, you should leave it in place as a marker and take a big step down slope and dig into the slope – if you dig straight down the probe you create a funnel-shaped hole that will continuously fill back in, making extrication impossible. The average burial depth is about 1.2m worldwide, so you have to move about one to one and a half tonnes of snow to get the person out.
A recco detector can detect a reflector that's placed on clothing
© Snodale
That’s a lot of work, so make the most of your resources and get as many people as you can to dig in a coordinated fashion and swap people out as they tire. Once you have the person out you may have to get them breathing, treat their injuries and hypothermia and arrange for evacuation to definitive medical care.
Watch below to see Xavier De Le Rue go though the steps of using an avalanche transceiver to find someone buried underneath the snow.
4 min
Shred Hacks: How to use an avalanche transceiver
Learn how to use your avalanche transceiver with freeride legend Xavier De Le Rue.
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