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Copyright © 2003 Express Publishing Inc.
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For the week of December 24 - 30, 2003

Features

Avalanche awareness key to safe backcountry mountain travel

Experts explain the basics


"There is no way you can prevent a slide out in the backcountry. Avalanche awareness is our best defense."

DOUG ABROMEIT, Forest Service National Avalanche Center director


Avalanche resources

The Sawtooth National Forest Avlanche Center is one of three National Forest avalanche centers in Idaho. The other two are on the Payette National Forest and the Panhandle National Forest.

Look for daily advisories online at www.avalanche.org.

Look for avalanche educational information at www.fsavalanche.org.

Call the local avalanche hotline at 622-8027 for information on snow stability in South Central Idaho.


By GREG STAHL
Express Staff Writer

Idaho’s serene, snow-covered mountains are a world-class playground for backcountry skiers and snowmobilers, but the tranquillity of the winter landscape belies the underlying danger of the U.S. Forest Service’s No. 1 natural killer: the avalanche.

Avalanche forecasters Greg Johnson and Janet Kellam prepare to demonstrate several snowpack stability evaluation methods near Galena Summit on Thursday. Express photo by Greg Stahl

As she dug in the snow at about 9,000 feet in the mountains north of Sun Valley, Sawtooth National Forest Avalanche Center Director Janet Kellam explained that, despite a rising number of avalanche fatalities each year, staying out of harm’s way is easier than some might think.

"We’re not about telling people, ‘Don’t go,’" she said. "What we’re about is helping people to get out and have fun and to do it safely. The biggest thing is looking at it and saying, ‘Does this look like avalanche terrain?’"

Avalanche prediction is an inexact science, but experts maintain that mountain travelers can make better decisions by learning the basic ingredients that produce snow slides. Even more obviously, backcountry travelers can also benefit from knowing, and practicing, what to do in case someone becomes trapped by an avalanche.

Each year, avalanches kill about 30 backcountry travelers in the U.S. It’s a number that has steadily grown since the 1950s, according to Forest Service National Avalanche Center Director Doug Abromeit.

It’s also a number that could probably be cut in half if many of the victims had heeded Mother Nature’s warning signs, Abromeit said. The average avalanche victim has missed 3.5 warning signs of a snowpack’s instability.

"Nearly every victim is in the backcountry pursuing some form of recreation," Abromeit said. "They’re not in ski areas. And almost invariably, someone in the victim’s party triggers the avalanche.

"There is no way you can prevent a slide out in the backcountry. Avalanche awareness is our best defense."

 

Diagnosing danger

Avalanches are the culmination of physical forces at work in the mountains. The necessary recipe includes steep slopes that are generally in excess of 30 degrees, an unstable snowpack and a trigger, like a skier or new snowfall, which sets things in motion.

According to Kellam, the science of avalanche forecasting lies primarily in evaluating the snow and monitoring weather.

"Weather is the architect of avalanches," she said. "And the layers in the snowpack give you the winter history."

Precipitation, temperature, wind and their various combinations all contribute to the stability, or instability, of a snowpack, Kellam said. A season’s weather events are also revealed to the patient observer in the wedding-cake-like layers that can be found by digging a pit in the snow. The weaker the underlying layers are, the greater the odds that the snow above it could break free and slide.

Kellam said that in order to determine the stability of an area, she often digs multiple snow pits and performs multiple tests in each pit. Backcountry travelers would do well to do the same and to look for clues about instability.

Obvious danger signs include cracking, a "whoomph" sound emanating from the snow as it settles underfoot, recent avalanche activity, or, for snowmobilers, bogging down in loose snow.

"We’re looking for agreement among all the clues we’ve been looking at," she said. "Skiing after one test is like getting married after one date. It works for some people, but I wouldn’t depend on it."

 

Be prepared

People who have been buried by avalanches and survived recall that they were entombed and immobilized, as if buried beneath setting cement.

Usually, they describe conscious thoughts followed by a sleepy feeling that precedes being uncovered. Those who survive are generally uncovered quickly, within about 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, odds of survival drop below 50 percent.

"The first 10 minutes are absolutely critical," Kellam said. "You do not go for outside help."

And she knows.

The Rutschblock test is a common means of determining backcountry snow stability. Janet Kellam demonstrates how a fairly solid snowpack holds up under the test. Express photo by Greg Stahl

In 2000, while working in a remote area in the Smoky Mountains, Kellam was buried by an avalanche. Because of a speedy, five-minute response by her two companions, Kellam is able to continue teaching the ways of safe winter travel.

"It’s what we do: We try to find the troubled areas so we can communicate them to others," Kellam said. "We were looking for stuff, and, unfortunately, we found it."

She said she was conscious the entire time she was buried but was close to blacking out when the snow was finally cleared from her face.

"I was blue when they pulled me out," she said. "It could have been a real fatal situation."

Kellam said skiers and snowmobilers should carry avalanche beacons, shovels and probes, and know how to use them.

Owen Downard, a Wood River Valley snowmobiler, said he won’t ride with partners who don’t have safety equipment and know how to use it.

While education and awareness among snowmobiliers are improving, there are still many who haven’t bothered to take a class, Downard said. Many people, skiers and snowmobilers alike, have good intentions but are apathetic about going to a class.

"This is important stuff," he said. "And if you get in trouble, your friends are the ones who need to dig you out. Knowing what to do when you’re buried beneath 5 feet of snow isn’t going to help much."

 

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