Summer has gone, Autumn is drawing to a close and winter is preparing itself to envelope us all. The snow junkies are beginning to stir out of hibernation.. The skiing season is soon to be upon us. Perhaps one of the most exhilarating of all outdoor activities, skiing offers a huge amount of enjoyment and scalability. However there can be an element of risk for serious injury. Safe skiing and the use of just general common sense will insure a memorable and highly pleasant experience.
It goes without doubt that an avalanche is the most scary and potentially lethal of all unforeseen mishaps that can occur on the skiing slopes. Prevention is better than cure and with just a little awareness you may never encounter an avalanche. Never go hiking or skiing alone in avalanche territory alone. This is just asking for trouble. Always carry an avalanche probe which is an aluminium pole that fits together creating a probe of six to eight feet in length. Some ski poles are actually threaded and can thus then be screwed together to form an avalanche pole. These ski poles are a much more convenient option. And finally on the equipment front always carry a beacon or GPS. This beacon will broadcast your location by setting up a magnetic field that can be picked up by other beacons in your skiing group or by the rescue services.
Avalanches occur in areas with new snow, on the mountain side facing away from the wind and generally in the afternoons of sunny days. They occur most often on mountainsides with angles of thirty to forty-five degrees which do happen to be the most popular slopes for skiing. Avalanches can be triggered by numerous factors including recent snowfall, wind and sunlight. As new snow falls the layers of snow may be of different consistencies and not bond together making the snow highly unstable.
Loud noises, contrary to belief, do not cause avalanches unless they cause significant vibrations in the snow or ground. The snow activity with the most avalanche risk is that of snowmobiling. These machines are light and powerful allowing them to be easily ridden high into mountainous terrain where the avalanches begin and occur.
If you do find yourself caught up in an avalanche do all you can to try and stay on top of the snow by using a freestyle swimming motion. If you are buried under the snow your best chance of survival is if someone saw you get covered and the location you are in. Snow in an avalanche is like a wet snowball. It is not light and powdery and hence extremely difficult to dig you way out from. But if you are completely buried the chances are that you will be too injured to help yourself out. However if you are not too injured and still retain body functions then dig a small hole around you and spit in it. The saliva will head downhill showing you which direction is up. On establishing this, dig up and dig as quickly as you can.
But don't let the risk of an avalanche ruin or put you off a skiing trip. Just equip yourself correctly and apply common sense and the chances of you actually being confronted with an avalanche are extremely remote.
