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What to Do if You’re Caught in an Avalanche

Expert source:
Bruce Tremper, author of Staying Alive in Avalanche Terrain. Tremper is director of the Utah Avalanche Center; he coordinated backcountry avalanche safety preparations for the 2002 Olympic Winter Games in Salt Lake City. He has been featured on nearly a dozen television documentaries about avalanches, including those produced by National Geographic and the Discovery Channel.

While the avalanche is moving
1. Yell—let your partner know you’re caught
2. Try to escape off the slab
3. If you can’t get off the slab, get right of your equipment
4. Use your breathing equipment (such as an Avalung mouthpiece, avalanche balloon or avalanche ball) or cover your mouth with your clothing
5. Leave your pack on:
· It provides valuable padding to your back and kidneys
· Should you survive, it contains needed supplies
· It makes you a larger object, helping to keep you near the surface
6. Fight for your life—swimming or rolling like a log can help

As the avalanche comes to a stop
7. Keep one hand near your mouth to scoop out an air space and wiggle to make an air space around your body
8. To help rescuers find you, extend a hand toward the surface before the avalanches comes to a stop (once it stops, it will set up like concrete)

When the avalanche comes to a stop
9. Relax. The snow instantly freezes up like concrete, so most completely buried victims can’t even move their fingers—there’s nothing more you can do so try to relax.

Equipment considerations:

Snomobilers—Wear a helmet with a face shield and a good seal around the neck. It helps to maintain an air space around your head when buried. Also, carry a shovel on your back in a small pack instead of on the snowmobile. If you survive and your snowmobile is buried, you’ll need a shovel to dig out your friends.
Skiers: Wear releasable bindings and don’t use pole straps.

Snowboarders—Rig your bindings with a ripcord so you can get out of your snowboard in a hurry.

Adapted from Staying Alive in Avalanche Terrain by Bruce Tremper, The Mountaineers Books, $17.95

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