Best Anti-Avalanche Gadget Is Avoidance

Sun., June 27, 1999

Dear Gear Guy: I saw a Swiss life jacket for avalanches on TV. You wear it on your side, and when you hear the roar of snow, you yank a big red handle. A bag inflates, and floats you right to the top! Or at least, gives you some air space inside your snow coffin. What’s the story on this? Does it work? Is it available here?

Scott Crenshaw

Gear Guy: I’m not familiar with the Swiss device, but Black Diamond is coming out with something called the AvaLung. It’s designed to give a buried avalanche victim some air so they can survive until (with luck) they’re dug out.

I’m not opposed to a piece of equipment that can save lives. But I also fear that anything that fosters a sense of “I can survive an avalanche” could perhaps do more harm than good. A big avalanche snaps 4-foot fir trees like toothpicks, shoves 20-ton boulders hundreds of yards, punches through buildings and knocks out bridges.

Even a “small” avalanche a few yards across can have the impact of a Ford Expedition moving at 35 miles per hour.

Ask yourself: Do you really want to deal with that? Personally, I think that devices like the AvaLung and the Swiss “life jacket” you mention are fine for people who MUST be in harm’s way - ski patrollers, perhaps, or search and rescue personnel.

But I see real problems for someone who dons one and says, “OK, now I can cross that steep slope to this cool snowboard area.” That would be very foolish, indeed.

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