Three Keys to Avalanche Safety

Tom: When it gets steep, I also like the fact the [AT] bindings are releasable. I know there are releasable tele bindings coming online now. And actually I'll segway into something else, because it's not so much the broken leg thing, although my brother, and my wife and my grandmother all broke their legs on tele bindings.

But, the other thing is that a binding that doesn't release tends to stay on your foot in an avalanche. I know you have an Avalanche 3 Cert, and you teach avalanche [safety] courses. As people are getting ready for winter, what are some wise words that you could give for getting yourself ready, I guess, psychologically as much as anything else for avalanche risk, avalanche safety?

Christian:  Well, I think the… what I would say the three main things to keep in mind, especially going into the season in terms of staying out of avalanches is:

1. Practice Searching AND Digging

One is practicing your rescue techniques and making sure you're really efficient at not only locating somebody, because with the modern beacons that can be really easy with things like the [Backcountry Access] Tracker or the Mammut Barryvox. They're great beacons that can pinpoint someone very quickly. So, it's not just being efficient and quick at the search, but also what they've found is [the importance of] practicing digging. That's where most of the time is taken up, is digging. Backcountry Access has some really great diagrams and PDFs that you can download about digging somebody out, what's the best technique to use. So, that's really important, those rescue techniques.

You can go on there and Bruce Edgerly, who's one of the owners, has done some really great research on digging. And they also have some really good diagrams on there as well on how to perform a beacon search. And we set up what they call a "beacon basin" here in the Tetons, where we have eight different beacons buried in the snow at random places and then all wired to a central box. And so, you can go, and you can turn on how many beacons you want and go and practice. And there's strike plates in there, so you can probe, and when you hit the strike plate, your buddy at the box turns that beacon off. So, it's a really great tool to practice with.

Tom:  I'm sorry, is that part of your guide service, or is that available to the public in general?

Christian:  That's available to the public in general and there are several throughout the Rockies, and I think there are a couple in the Sierra. Also, if you go to Backcountry Access, they have a list of all the different [beacon parks] that are set up. Backcountry Access sponsors them, basically. We use it a little bit in teaching rescue techniques through our avalanche classes, but then they're also just open for anybody go and practice with. It's a really great public service. So, Exum Mountain Guides sponsors that.

What I found… taking a group there and seeing other people practicing… I've seen people just wandering around following their beacons, and not doing a really focused search. One of the things that I tell my students when we start practicing is, "Hey, your buddy is in the snow, and they're dying". Keep that mindset while you're going to do that. And it really changes how you practice. But also, really having a systematic way of searching for somebody. I think that's the most important thing. There is a primary search, a secondary search, and a fine search, and then you start digging. So, really understanding how those three search patterns work will make you a much better searcher, and make you less frantic when you're actually going to dig your buddy out, and make you more effective. So, I think that's really important. Avalanche courses are going to teach that, but it's something you could, you know, get some information online and start doing that stuff on your own. [16:58]

Tom:  Even for people who don't have access to snow, which is the case for a lot of people in California —they live San Francisco — the challenge they have is that, they don't really feel like spending one day of their precious time in the mountains doing practice. At the very least you can you can practice the first couple levels of search by having a paper bag course or something like that in the park.

2. Understanding Avalanche Terrain

Tom: You know I always think its all well and good to be able to find someone after the fact, but it's a lot better not have the fact in the first place.

Christian: Exactly, exactly. So now those were the other two things that I think are really important to be working on throughout the season. The main thing about not getting into avalanches is really understanding terrain and what are the safe spots, what are your islands of safety, where should you be traveling, where should you stay out of. So a really good understanding of both macro train, so ok we're going to climb that ridge over there that is through the trees and and has nothing hanging above you, to micro terrain when you're actually skiing down something and maybe you are skiing an avalanche path, but looking for little micro terrain as you're going. That little rise in the middle of your avalanche path that is going to keep you up a little bit higher than some of the other places.

Or really understanding where you outs. So while you're skiing down, making that plan. I know that if this thing goes, it looks like that little spot over there is some place where the slide might not catch me and I'll be able to go and ski into.

So understanding terrain is really the whole key. If you can stay out of the way of the avalanches and not get into 'em in the first place, obviously you're one step ahead.

Tracking the Snowpack

And then the other thing that I think is really important is keeping up with what the snow pack is doing throughout the winter. What's the weather been doing. So for example, we actually have a really great website here in the Tetons now called TetonSnowInfo.com and it provides the avalanche forecast that's put out by the Bridger-Teton National Forest. It has weather data from all the different weather stations in the area and just gives you kind of one-stop shopping where you can go and pick up every thing and see what's actually happening. It gives really good detailed wind data, temperature data, snow depth data, presipitation, all that sort of thing.

So keeping track of that stuff on a daily basis is really important, or even a weekly basis. Even if I'm travelling. So for instance, I go to Patagonia for at least a couple of weeks every winter. I try and keep up with what's been going [on] or I have the avalanche report go to my inbox in email and when I get home I go through and review and see what's been happening.

So that's the best way and keep a really good idea of the overall snow pack through the winter. So, later on, I know there is a really dry spell and we had really cold temperatures for about two weeks in January and now we're in the end of February and we just got a whole bunch of snow. What's happening with that layer when the dry spell was? There might be some depth hoar there or some surface hoar that got buried. Things like that so you have an idea of the whole stratigraphy throughout the season.

Tom:  Here I would say one thing that I think of a lot for, actually any thing in life. It's one of things is that getting out in the mountains teaches you that you can apply everywhere, which is to decide ahead of time what level of risk you're willing to accept and then not that cast that aside because the snow is really good that day.

Christian:  Exactly. Exactly. I think, you know [laughs], as you gain experience in the backcountry, you get out there and you kind of have these feelings like "Nyyyyuuuuuhhhhh, I dunnnnno… it just doesn't feel right" then maybe you shouldn't ski it.

Tom: Bruce Tremper in his book [Staying Alive in Avalanche Terrain] has this great little comment where he says: You think you're pretty solid with your avalanche skills. Let's say you're right 99% of the time. And now let's say you ski 100 days a year. Being correct 99% of the time means you're dead in a year or two.

Christian:  Yep. Another old Teton ranger, he always says that… You know, the different levels of avalanche danger — low, moderate, high, extreme, right? So, you know, he says "Moderate, huh? So, that means if I go out today, I have a moderate chance of being killed?"