Techfiles - Page 3
March 28, 2008 @ 2:07 PM
Then, after two minutes, Alex receives a number on his display: 35 metres! He shouts to the others to switch off their beacons as from this moment only one person should concentrate on the search. His beacon is one of the newest models on the market and direction arrows should lead him easily and quickly to Tom. He follows them – 30 metres… 25… 18… 10. Alex gets more and more nervous, tumbling through the avalanche. Maybe Tom is already dead? Choking is the most common cause of death in avalanches but second is the serious injuries the victim can suffer while the avalanche is still moving. 8… 6… 5 metres – now he has to continue with the precision finding. Alex kneels down and holds the beacon slightly above the snow surface. He ignores the direction arrows and only concentrates on the distance now. Only 4 metres! He steps back a little bit – 4.3 metres. Okay, then again a little bit forward – 3 metres… 2 metres… 1 metre. Damn, 1.5 metres – back again. Now to both sides and suddenly the beacon displays 0.5 metres on the right side, the shortest distance Alex’s device can display. “I got him”, Alex shouts to the others, takes off his backpack and gets out his shovel and probe. Tom has been buried for 11 minutes now.
Starting from the outside of one square metre around the point with the lowest distance, Alex punctures the snow with his probe. Suddenly he runs against something. Is this a just a rock or is it Tom? The probe backs down a little bit, it has to be a body. Mike and Lisa start digging together with Alex. “How long has he been buried?” Lisa asks. “15 minutes,” Alex answers gently. After a few more minutes, Tom looks into the relieved faces of his friends.
Tom was fortunate. The avalanche that buried him was about 200 metres long and 70 metres wide, and the height of the crack was half a metre. But he wore his beacon on his body and thus could be found by his friends. Although they had all attended an avalanche course and had regularly practised with their equipment, they still needed about ten minutes to locate him. Tom was only buried 50cm under the surface but it took them more than five minutes to completely dig him out. 30 minutes after Tom had triggered the avalanche, the mountain rescue arrived. If his friends hadn’t had avalanche equipment, he probably would have been found only after 45 minutes. Statistically only a quarter of all avalanche victims are still alive then.
DOs & DON’Ts
Dos
- Always check the avalanche report before riding in the backcountry. Further down this article you will find the relevant websites for different countries.
- Always – ALWAYS – take your complete avalanche equipment with you: beacon, shovel and probe. The beacon is useless if you can’t dig out your buddies!
- Only go into the backcountry with people who have avalanche equipment and know how to use it. It is your life that is on the line in case of an emergency.
- Carefully watch your environment: are there warning signs like wind-lips, ’whomp’ noises or fresh avalanches? If so, the avalanche danger is pretty high and you should avoid runs in the backcountry.
- If you have a bad feeling, don’t go.
- Drop into a run one after another – never go all together. This puts less pressure on the snow coat and you avoid multiple people getting buried in case of an avalanche.
Don’ts
- Avoid slopes steeper than 40 degrees if the danger level is 2. With 3 you shouldn’t ride slopes steeper than 35 degrees, and with 4 don’t even think of anything above 30 degrees. Going into the backcountry at danger level 5 is perilous.
- Don’t switch to the forest only because the avalanche danger is too high for open slopes. Avalanches can also happen in the forest and here the danger of injury is even higher because of all the obstacles.
- In case of low visibility, immediately go back to the piste or the park.
- Avoid steep runs if the conditions are unfavourable, even if you already rode some in other slopes that were flatter and nothing had happened. Avalanches are unpredictable and often it is only one degree steepness or one more turn that triggers the catastrophe.
