Avalanche rescue caught on helmet cam

[BladeGirl]

From Bladeguy:

Skier's helmet cam captures avalanche, getting buried and
getting rescued. Only buried for 4-5 minutes, and made it
through without serious injury.

http://vimeo.com/6581009

If you freeze right at 1:09 - 1:10, you might pick out the
start of the avalanche to skier's right, then it gets under
him around 1:17. Looks like he tries to bail left, but he
can't clear the collapsing snow.

1:50 to 5:10 doesn't have a lot of activity; after 5:10 the
rest of his group can be heard through the snow above him,
trying to pinpoint him and dig him out. 6:07 is the very
welcome view of the shovel clearing a space above him.

[icelanticskier]

well, you probably won't learn that in an avi course. he came close to becoming a true avi expert. nice to see a happy ending.

you can never be too careful.

snowpits, snow grain study, finger/pencil blah blah tests, block tests will never save you from avi peril. alot of the time pits and such just give folks a false sense of security and make them think that because they dug a pit, they will be ok.

safe travel techniques and understanding terrain and features are what avi courses should be focussing more on.

rog

[drewvw]

I watched a cleaned up version of this on MSNBC today, and BD has it on there site as well for the ava lung

[Mahk]

At 42 seconds into the flick, he puts his hands in the pole straps - do NOT do that! The pole baskets can drag/pull you deeper into the entrainment! Do not use pole straps in the backcountry.

[natron]

poles are for going up! mine go in my pack for going down

[icelanticskier]

Originally Posted by natron

poles are for going up! mine go in my pack for going down

like he said, do not use pole straps in the backcountry.

rog

[TuaGuy]

Originally Posted by icelanticskier

well, you probably won't learn that in an avi course. he came close to becoming a true avi expert. nice to see a happy ending.

you can never be too careful.

snowpits, snow grain study, finger/pencil blah blah tests, block tests will never save you from avi peril. alot of the time pits and such just give folks a false sense of security and make them think that because they dug a pit, they will be ok.

safe travel techniques and understanding terrain and features are what avi courses should be focussing more on.

rog

Any available beta out there (any medium) you like? An extended lecture on group dynamics and management, though useful I'm sure, is pretty far down the list of concerns I have about saving my a$$ in the first place. I understand the snow science I've been exposed to, and need more for sure, but info on looking at features, particularly given the white cement we often get around here, would really be welcome.

[icelanticskier]

Originally Posted by TuaGuy

Any available beta out there (any medium) you like? An extended lecture on group dynamics and management, though useful I'm sure, is pretty far down the list of concerns I have about saving my a$$ in the first place. I understand the snow science I've been exposed to, and need more for sure, but info on looking at features, particularly given the white cement we often get around here, would really be welcome.

my 1st source for knowledge was, freedom of the hills. next was a talk by bruce tremper when i lived at alta. everything bruce said, you can read in books. the info is general, to the point, and easily becomes common sense. other than that, just getting out a ton, reading the avi bulletins daily (even if yer not going) and learning how the weather and precip affects conditions. snow pits? i've maybe dug a handful over the years. not a big fan of em. i check snow stability with my hand and the handle of my pole more often than not. if i know that it hasn't snowed in some time and we get new snow and blow, well whichever aspect get's the blow in snow and the pitch is much above 30, well i'm gonna treat that with some respect or stay away altogether and play another day. i'm a big fan of ski cuts and have let some rippers go in tux and in oakes. rippers where if i'd just "dropped in", there'd be a rescue cache in my name somewhere up there.

rog

[Mahk]

Originally Posted by icelanticskier

i'm a big fan of ski cuts and have let some rippers go in tux and in oakes. rippers where if i'd just "dropped in", there'd be a rescue cache in my name somewhere up there.

rog

Where didja' learn about how to do ski cuts?

I'm terrified of 'em, myself . I've only seen them done twice: once in Rogers Pass by an IFMGA/UIAGM certified guide with extensive experience guiding for a major Canadian Heli-ski operation and another near the Lyell Icefields by an ACMG certified Ski Guide who advised me not to do them until I get much more experience and only to trigger a slide that would be no larger than the size of a living room. I asked my Level 2 instructor about them and he just laughed and said "ya' won't catch me doing them at the top of Left Gully".

Yet, I keep on hearing about them on the Intenet, etc. Maybe I'm missing something, I dunno.

[Seeker]

phuk. BG, that is a crazy find. Thanks for posting.

[icelanticskier]

Originally Posted by Mahk

Where didja' learn about how to do ski cuts?

I'm terrified of 'em, myself . I've only seen them done twice: once in Rogers Pass by an IFMGA/UIAGM certified guide with extensive experience guiding for a major Canadian Heli-ski operation and another near the Lyell Icefields by an ACMG certified Ski Guide who advised me not to do them until I get much more experience and only to trigger a slide that would be no larger than the size of a living room. I asked my Level 2 instructor about them and he just laughed and said "ya' won't catch me doing them at the top of Left Gully".

Yet, I keep on hearing about them on the Intenet, etc. Maybe I'm missing something, I dunno.

i think i started doing them while living in utah in the mid 90's, but have done much more of it in the white's where most of our terrain is steep and exposed.

a ski cut is simply what it is. a cut that you make across the top of a suspect slope. now i'm a street smart kinda guy as i was never a fan of school or taking courses/classes. i learn by getting out there and doing it. there are certainly places where i do em and where i don't do em. dodges? no. GOS? in some places. oakes? darn tootin. tux? in places. ski cuts are all about picking a safe starting zone and having a safe stopping point. you don't wanna frig around when making yer cut. momentum is key and you wanna be real deliberate about yer movements.

one of the biggest slopes that i've gotten to go was one year in tux, maybe 98'. after talking to the rangers and telling them my intentions, they agreed that danger ratings were dropping and it was early march so thebowl was close to empty of folks. after skiing about a foot of fresh below and in between the mouth of rg and rrg, i decided to head up into sluice in the cliff band that separates upper sluice and rg. well, i got up there and somethin just didn't feel right. so, i built a ledge and came up with a plan. i planned to make a hop turn from my right and cutting a hard turn to a safe spot behind me in a little low angle hollow behind me next to rg. well, it worked. i hopped, turned, cut her in hard and the whole slope a foot+ deep and up to 200 feet wide cut loose with a wooosh. the plumes of snow pounding in and through lunch rocks completely obscured my view of the whole other side of the ravine. once the dust settled, i skied down a very hero soft smooth bed surface to the ravine floor and called it a day.

another big one that i got to go was in oakes skiing the funnel. it was avery warm day in the spring with rapid heating/melting of the snow. my uncle steve and i got to the top and i poked a bit at the snow to find a good 6+ inches of mank spring slush sitting all smooth like on a wet bed surface. anyone for a little slip and slide action? to top of the funnel is a good 45 degree pitch with a lowfer angle corner for safety. now, doing a ski cut in spring snow isn't as common, but i felt it was important so with steve holding out his extended pole, i grabbed the end with an out stretched arm and swung a turn across the top with him holding on tight just above but kinda sliding across with me and gain, wooosh, there she goes! the whole thing went, much more slowly than the tux slide, but would've been tough to get out of it and not fun to have taken a ride.

so ya, ski cuts, i wouldn't do what i do all winter up high without em. they actually get to be kinda fun after awhile.

rog

[jshefftz]

Originally Posted by icelanticskier

safe travel techniques and understanding terrain and features are what avi courses should be focussing more on.

As an avalanche safety course instructor for both AIARE and NSP, that is indeed what we are focusing more on.

[TuaGuy]

Originally Posted by icelanticskier

my 1st source for knowledge was, freedom of the hills. next was a talk by bruce tremper when i lived at alta. everything bruce said, you can read in books. the info is general, to the point, and easily becomes common sense. other than that, just getting out a ton, reading the avi bulletins daily (even if yer not going) and learning how the weather and precip affects conditions. snow pits? i've maybe dug a handful over the years. not a big fan of em. i check snow stability with my hand and the handle of my pole more often than not. if i know that it hasn't snowed in some time and we get new snow and blow, well whichever aspect get's the blow in snow and the pitch is much above 30, well i'm gonna treat that with some respect or stay away altogether and play another day. i'm a big fan of ski cuts and have let some rippers go in tux and in oakes. rippers where if i'd just "dropped in", there'd be a rescue cache in my name somewhere up there.

rog

Thanks, and a trip to Borders to add to the library. So far, I've survived the "freedom of the hills" part, but I'm def hearin' Mahk. There's this angst, I guess based on lack of experience, or, more specifically, lack of varied experience, with the hazards. I just want to expand where I've been while trying not to be the subject of that naming of the cache ceremony. Always on top of OBS and the Ranger's reports daily, adding to the reading, talking as much as possible to people in a position to know, and, yes, dug pits (I found they helped me understand some of the stuff I'd read or been told), but I'm hearing that there is no substitute for being there. I've stayed away from places that had that don't go feel based on what I've learned so far, one of which I know to have slid less than a day after bailing. Here's hoping the knowledge and experience curve is travelled far enough to supplant the luck and intuition curve before the sh!t hits the fan. Thanks for the insight.

[Mahk]

OK, Ice, I'll take your word that ya' knows your stuff regarding cuts.

We should all remember, per the 2009 SWAG:
Safety is the primary concern
Inexperienced observers should not do this
This testing is applied to weak layers fairly near the surface and soft slabs

[bristlecone]

If an avalanche starts while your momentum is moving down the fall line (making turns), you are in it - not really possible to edge to change direction on something that's moving right along with you. On the other hand, your across-the-hill momentum doing a ski cut may carry you off the moving snow. So you need good across-the-hill momentum. Some lines just don't have the space.

Heed Mahk's little happy skier points! And look out for

Originally Posted by avalanche.org

Poking and prodding the snow here, there, and everywhere all the time is good practice. A pit is just one spot, but does tell you a lot about that spot. Vastly more important in places where you stand a good chance of an April failure on an October surface deep below, since you can't gauge that with surface observations. But still important here too.

There are some good things about not living in Colorado.

For info on terrain reading, both Tremper's "Staying alive in avalanche terrain" and McClung/Schaerer "Avalanche handbook" are good. Tremper maybe a bit better, more of a focus on learning to read terrain. Both have lots of pics/examples.

After a good November armchair read, one concludes that just about all our nice NH ski runs are rather nasty terrain traps. We keep skiing in gullies because that's where landslides ripped away enough shrubbery to do it. If only we had natural glades in the east...

Though, I found this incident (Gaspe, April '09) particularly sobering, given the small open area in which it occurred. One person killed by trauma when the avy swept him into the trees.

Originally Posted by CAHG

More pics and vids from the crown and debris. (All from the Centre d'avalanche de la Haute Gaspesie). Report here, also a bit at avalanche.org.

Incidentally if I'm off track please speak up. Whenever snow safety is involved.