Swift And Deadly Recreationists Forging Into Backcountry During Winter Need To Know Avalanche Warning Signs And Survival Skills

Many victims never hear a thing. Other times it begins with a kind of thunderclap or hollow “whoomp,” the voice of gravity acting upon a slab of snow. In some massive avalanches, the mountain itself may seem to rumble as the slope suddenly fractures and goes tearing down the mountainside like an icy wave.

It happened that way Oct. 5, 1999, on Shishapangma, an 8,000-meter peak in Tibet. A monsoon-laden serac, a pinnacle of ice, gave way with one sharp report, then steamrolled 4,000 feet down the flank of the mountain, sweeping two American climbers superstar alpinist Alex Lowe and climbing cameraman Dave Bridges across a crevasse field. Their bodies were not recovered.

Another climber, Conrad Anker, miraculously survived. Able to extricate himself from a foot of debris, he suffered a gashed head, broken rib and torn shoulder muscles as the edge of the avalanche roared over him.

“In the last 30 seconds of my friends’ life, there was nothing I could do for them,” Anker said. “We were all running in different directions couldn’t even say goodbye or anything. There was nothing I could do.”

As more and more recreationists are heading into the backcountry in quest of fresh tracks and relative solitude, avalanche casualties are rising. Last season in the United States alone, avalanches claimed 32 lives, setting a record in the modern era of mountain tourism. Worldwide, the annual figure averages 140.

According to Bruce Temper, of the Utah Avalanche Forecast System, statistics show that 93 percent of avalanche victims who survive the initial slide are still alive after 15 minutes. From there, the figure drops catastrophically. After 45 minutes, only 8 percent are still alive.

In most cases, witnesses to an avalanche accident should not go for help but instead, begin searching immediately. Shovels, probes and avalanche beacons - small, low-powered, electro-magnetic devices that send and receive radio signals - are crucial to a successful rescue.

Dale Atkins, a forecaster with the Colorado Avalanche Information Center (CAIC), says, “Beacons are truly the best tool for finding people quickly.”

Unfortunately, he notes, more people are found dead than alive, even when beacons are used. “Most people,” he says, “are just not fast enough in their search.”

At the CAIC Web site, avalanche accidents from across the country are recounted at length and tallied with a kind of actuarial efficiency that brings the subject into high, if grim, relief.

Avalanche victims tend to be males between the ages of 19 and 35 who are very skilled at their sport and generally knowledgeable about the backcountry.

Their avalanche awareness, however, usually lags behind their skill level by a fair margin. They, or someone in their party, almost always trigger the slide that kills them.

Colorado claims the dubious distinction of logging the most avalanche fatalities, with as many as 12 per year. Alaska and Montana run second and third respectively. February, January and March (in that order) are the most dangerous months for avalanches in North America.

Snowmobilers lead the list of victims, followed by backcountry skiers and climbers. From 1992 to 1997, no avalanche deaths were reported involving skiers in resort areas, although three ski patrollers died in avalanches, as well as five people who skied out-of-bounds.

No doubt it’s the siren call of untracked snow that lures many recreationists into what forecaster Atkins calls “the den of the avalanche dragon.” Skiers and snowboarders, in particular, find themselves in a paradoxical position, wherein the best conditions are also the worst conditions.

“We ask people, `What does it mean to you when we say the avalanche danger is high?”’ Atkins says. “And they say, `Well, it means good skiing.’ “And it does. The trick is to recognize what slopes - at what angles, what elevations and what aspects - are liable to be triggered.”

To complicate matters further, however, the slopes most likely to fail - those at angles between 30 and 45 degrees - are also the ones skiers tend to covet most.

The science of avalanches is inherently complex, but Atkins, who is also an instructor, says there are many indications of avalanche danger that are easy to recognize. As such, he recommends that everyone take at least one avalanche course before venturing into backcountry snows, preferably more.

“Avalanche awareness,” he says, “is a journey, not a destination.”

Experience itself can sometimes foster a false sense of security. “What we see with experienced people a lot of times is that they get in trouble when they stop thinking avalanche.”

Certainly, the victims on Shishapangma knew what they were doing. “There are many precautions you can take when you are traveling in avalanche terrain, including wearing a beacon, carrying a shovel and staying spread out from other people,” said Shishapangma expedition leader Andrew McLean in a MountainZone.com dispatch. “In hindsight, people have questioned why none of these basic rules were followed. The simplified answer is that we didn’t consider what we were doing or where we were going that day to even remotely have any sort of avalanche hazard.”

It would be wrong to second-guess that judgment. But it would be worse to ignore the story.

For more information on the Shishapangma tragedy, go to: www.mountainzone.com/climbing/ 99/shishapangma.

AVALANCHE DANGER Forecasts The McCall Ranger District of the Payette National Forest has launched an avalanche advisory center this winter, increasing the regional coverage for avalanche forecasting in the Inland Northwest. Following are contacts for recorded regional forecasts updated at least once a week. Idaho * Idaho Panhandle: (208) 765-7323. * McCall area:(208) 634-0409. * Sun Valley area: (208) 622-8027. Washington/Oregon * North Cascades and Olympics: (206) 526-6677. * Mount Hood and southern Washington Cascades: (503) 808-2400. Montana * Glacier Park area: (406) 758-5284. * Bozeman area and Yellowstone Park: (406) 587-6981. * Missoula area: (406) 549-4488. Canada * Canadian Avalanche Center: (800) 667-1105. All of these forecasts and more are available on the Internet at www.avalanche.org. Rich Landers