Scary avalanche

Octopus

Octopus

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did he yell stop???

3 steps for avalanche survival:

1) send it as fucking hard and fast as you can, if you cannot outrun the avalanche, proceed to step 2.

2) if you feel yourself getting eaten by the snow try to unclick at least one of your skis (for knee injury prevention)

3) swim like micheal phelps
 
Avy gear you idiots.

Shovels, probes, all that good stuff. Don't go into the BC without it. Period.
 
i think its freaky how there were already tracks down that slope but his were the only ones to start an avalanche
 
yeah all that extra is just gonna make it way harder to move around, if your trying to keep on top of the debris with your skis on you cant do shit, without skis you can kinda swim and sorta manouver yourself to the top. plus being barried at all with skis on is gonna make it that much harder to get out if you have a chance.but for step one, dont send it straight down the hill, get to the side as fast as you can without cutting too hard so the avalanche catches up or sweeps you off your feet, just get out of the slide path as quick as you can
 
You kick them off once it has hit you, and hopefully it will prevent you from either being dragged under or having your legs torn apart.

He was in a pretty obvious trigger zone, but shit happens sometimes. However, there would be no way I would have started down that without digging a pit at the top and then ski cutting it.
 
You're right of course to take maximum precautions, but (and I could well be wrong here) I doubt many people would dig a proper pit before dropping into a line that was already tracked. obviously this video proves that just because something is tracked, doesn't mean it won't slide, but bear in mind this isn't what you guys call 'backcountry'. there is no such distinction in europe. also this is verbier- for better or worse (in this case worse), if you went round digging a pit before dropping in on every line, you'd never have any pow to ski, because it gets tracked so fast there. for the most part you have to balance risk and reward, take appropriate predcautions where possible, and use your better judgement.

Anyway, a simple ski cut could well have prevented this, which goes to show that having the knowledge to prevent being caught in a slide is just as important as having the equipment to dig your buddy out if he does get caught. BOTH OF THESE are essential and I would stress to anyone looking to get into BC...

YOU CAN NEVER KNOW ENOUGH! HAVE FUN!!
 
hmmmmm, life... vs skiing pow. its a tough choice. i think id have to chose life though....
 
thanks bro, greatly appreciated would give you plus karma but you are at ten allready.

one more question though: why the 45 degree angle?

 
yo honestly man I wouldn't be giving out an avalanche class on the internet, you could get fucked if he does something wrong. Just go take an Avy I course, you'll do all of this first hand with the supervision of someone who has 1,000's of hours in the backcountry and knows what the fuck their doing.
 
POV of Avy. Scary shit, luckily this guy had all proper equipment including Avy Lung.

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didnt read everything do dont know if this has been said but ski cutting that slope i dont think would have help that much becuase it looked like a hard slab and ski cuts arnt really that great for triggering hard slabs they work better for new snow instabilaties and recent wind slabs. Even though still doing them is not a bad idea its just not a real good test for hard slabs. And ya that story from colorado is interesting and they always seem to do that with incidients in colorado real indepth with there qestioning especially, prabubly for some sort of research.
 
I'd say that was definetly a soft slab because it broke like a spider web but its hard to tell because you cant see the slab from the top so it could be a hard slab im not sure
 
well lets see, you basically implied that because europe has no real "backcountry" distinction, you should no longer take the normal precautions, thats just dumb.
 
no its not. dont think that just cause theres tracks that there is no or less avy danger. thoughts like this can lead to avy's(maybe the one in the video...), and deaths.

there is a picture with a HUGE crown from an avy with several tracks going into it. Ill try to see if I can find it.
 
I missed this the first time through.

Tracks don't really say much about stability most of the time--especially when the instabilities are further down in the snowpack. A good example of this is a slide that happened near Cooke City a few weeks ago...here it is before, literally covered with sled tracks:

1232407160.jpg


And immediately after breaking at the ground with a crown up to 15' deep:

1232324991.jpg
 
those are the stupidest thing you could do.

your try to go perpendicular to the slide because you can Not out run an avy.

find a sharp ridge or flute so the snow will break away from around you and you have minimal contact with the snow to make for a easier anchoring to the new top surface of the snow.

click out? not going there but just dont do that, you need to think about other things other than clicking out.

 
pretty damn hard to outrun an avalanche. the guy did the right thing, if you go to the youtube page he skis underneath the rock that the filmer is standing on
 
word. we learned you shouldnt go directly horizontal (youll get caught up super fast) but rather angle for a safe zone. keep your speed up to give you more time though
 
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