Know Before You Go

This is an article that I wrote to be featured on the Chugach National Forest Avalanche Information Center website. I plan to contribute two articles per month to the site.

It goes without saying that backcountry travel in avalanche terrain involves risks. Exposure, equipment failure, injury, and, of course, the hazards associated with the release of an avalanche are major risks that a traveler should consider before every tour. Backcountry users, however, tend to be an optimistic group. For instance, even the slightest accumulation of early season snow is cause for celebration among backcountry enthusiasts. In the same vein, backcountry users may also perceive lower risk in the face of danger as a result of their sunny disposition. Indeed, early season avalanches have claimed the lives of three U.S. backcountry users so far this season. While optimism is certainly an enviable trait, this glass-half-full outlook could lead to ill advised decisions in the backcountry. Which begs the question, are backcountry users aware of the avalanche danger during an outing? A recent article in Wilderness & Environmental Medicine details the efforts of researchers in Salt Lake City, Utah to determine who “knows before they go.” The group of three scientists took their clipboards to popular trailheads and backcountry access gates in the Wasatch and Uinta mountains in the winter of 2005-2006 and asked backcountry users to rate the avalanche danger for their destination. Over three hundred backcountry travelers completed a questionnaire that collected information such as level of avalanche education (i.e., whether the traveler had taken an avalanche education course) and mode of travel. Participants were then asked to assess the avalanche danger that they expected for their destination. These results were compared to that day’s avalanche forecast from the Utah Avalanche Center (UAC) daily advisory which uses the same standard ranking system as the CNFAIC – low, moderate, considerable, high, or extreme. The backcountry users who participated in the survey were grouped based on their mode of travel – ski, snowboard, snowmachine, and snowshoe.
Results of the survey indicated that a large portion of skiers and snowboarders were aware of the avalanche danger – only 10% of skiers and 13% of snowboarders underestimated the level of avalanche danger for their destination. While a larger percentage of snowmachiners (22%) and snowshoers (45%) underestimated the avalanche danger. Now, before skiers and snowboarders launch “I told you so” rants and begin blaming other backcountry users for the slab that released during their last tour, it is important to note that this study did not determine whether the participants in the survey had accurately assessed the level of avalanche danger based on their own stability and weather observations. That is, backcountry users were not asked whether they had dug a pit, and tested the snow to assess the avalanche danger. Rather, the study simply identified who had read the daily avalanche advisory. Therefore, it is impossible to know which backcountry travelers in the study had actually examined snow pack conditions for their destination. While the results of the study may confirm preconceived notions about which backcountry users are aware of current avalanche conditions, it also demonstrates the challenges faced by avalanche centers such as the CNFAIC to expand their reach to backcountry travelers using snowshoes and snowmachines. A quick click or call to the CNFAIC daily avalanche advisory is always a good idea when planning a tour. And, with a new advisory every day of the week it’s even easier to “know before you go.”

Silverton NA, McIntosh SE, Kim HS. Risk Assessment in Backcountry Travel. Wilderness & Environmental Medicine, 2009; 20(3): 269-274.