Avalanche safety articles from Off-Piste Magazine. Making wise terrain choices, understanding the avalanche forecast and the latest avalanche safety gear reviews. Advice from professional mountain guides about route planning, communication and on-the-fly snow stability evaluation.
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Recognizing Avalanche Terrain Avalanche Canada has a webinar series this season covering a variety of avalanche safety topics. Recognizing Avalanche Terrain and Trip Preparedness provides a good introduction to or refresher on avalance hazards. It includes info specific to Avalanche Canada’s website, but more it’s a solid overview for anyone looking to broaden their backcountry knowledge. Off-Piste Mag is created by… Read More
Chest Harness or Pants Pocket – What’s the Best Place to Wear Your Transceiver The standard protocol for wearing an avalanche transceiver has long been to strap it to your chest in its harness. In the last handful of years, more and more skiers have been storing their beacons in their pants pockets. Using a pant pocket provides convenient access… Read More
Avalanche Rescue Probe Technique Aside from understanding the hazard and avoiding avalanches, most backcountry skiers focus their snow safety efforts on efficient transceiver use. Proficiency with your beacon is definitely important. However, given a burial, shoveling and probing can easily be the most time-consuming piece of an avalanche rescue. Backcountry Access (BCA) offers a number of educational avalanche-rescue blogs and… Read More
I like to start a day of touring with an innocent-sounding question; “Anyone know what the hazard is rated today?” This question is a very effective way to begin a conversation with your touring partners about the current avalanche conditions. I like to follow it up with something like, “Considerable, eh? What’s our main concern?” Now, with a discussion about… Read More
Avalanche Safety – Communication in the Backcountry With ski season comes avalanche season. It’s time to review the practices, communication, behavior and interactions with your ski partners from last season – take an honest and critical look at how the memories measure up on the safety front – think about the days you pushed the comfort zone and the days… Read More
Weak Layers A low-tech approach to identifying common avalanche culprits – by Larry Goldie Believe it or not, regardless of what triggers an avalanche, every avalanche has one thing in common: they all fail on a weak layer of snow. Personally, I would much rather be out skiing than standing around in snowpits looking at snow crystals and analyzing weak layers…. Read More
Avalanche Safety – Keep it Simple NSAW, the Northwest Snow and Avalanche Workshop, was held in late October. As usual, the event was excellent and is a great way to jump start your avalanche safety brain for the season. NWAC recorded all of the presentations this year and recently posted them on their YouTube channel. All of the presentations are high… Read More
Avalanche Beacon 101 If you’re in the market for an avalanche beacon (avalanche transceivers), today’s units are incredibly proficient search tools. Digital signal processing and directional guidance are all standard fare. We handed a collection of the latest avalanche beacons to rank novices with no tips or directions beyond how to switch to search mode. Search results for a single… Read More
As winter transitions to spring, changes in the snowpack can take place at an alarming rate, catching even the most experienced skiers off guard. Spring avalanche hazard is every bit as important as winter. By the time March rolls around, the sun is significantly higher in the sky than it has been all winter. This increased sun angle can add… Read More
What’s Your System? Managing Your Human Factor – Joe Stock I’ve never been caught in avalanche. Maybe it’s because I’m good at mountain travel. Maybe it’s because I maintain a healthy margin for error. Maybe it’s luck. In any case, I work hard to avoid avalanches. I’m in the snowy mountains most of winter. The odds are against me. One of the… Read More
