Falling Back - Lurching Forward

"For what its worth: its never too late or, in my case, too early to be whoever you want to be. There's no time limit, stop whenever you want. You can change, or stay the same, there are no rules to this thing"  F.Scott Fitzgerald - The Great Gatsby

I guess as we age we reminisce more and look back, as there is more back than forward. I do a bit of that these days. I also do look forward quite a bit as there is I hope quite a bit of it left! I am goal oriented needing a progression or something to aim forward at. Preferably without a ball, but certainly needing engagement. My teachers at school certainly thought I had a short attention span. But I didn't I was just bored with rote learning.  Primary education was fairly strict in our wee Highland village school St Mary's Episcopal. At St Mary's you got the three "R's" or the belt, often times both.  In fairness I could be a wee shite but aren't all boys now and again when bored. We had some Gaelic and minor Scottish history at school in among the revisionist clap trap of glorious English history, 1066 and all that. Its not so much that Scottish history was ignored, it just seemed a footnote to the Great British empire and revisionist myths. Little did we realise at the time that our history and culture, Neolithic, Celtic, Dalriadan, Celtic Warrior Priests, Vikings, Jacobite's and Scottish enlightenment was both our local and National history that had far reaching influence, European and World. Darien to the Heights of Abraham, Hanseatic League to the Somme and the extirpation of the menfolk of the Cabrach. 

Secondary School up the road at Kinlochleven was just a travail among some burnt out bullies for teachers and de motivated kids. For me it was class room days of longing to be out with a fishing rod on a hill loch or wandering the river. I had not read "Highland River" by Neil Gunn then, but later on reading it I found Kenn the protagonist and I shared many childhood wonderings and wanderings. The source for me was always high in the mountains of the Glen. Filling me with terror and longing at the same time.  Highland River is a quest. The salmon symbolising knowledge from the Druid/Celtic mythology of An Bradán Feasa. Fishing was and still is a wander with a rod. Less about what you catch (these days I put them back if I can) and more about what you feel see and think along the way - perhaps an enlightenment. I can partly be defined as an angler, and I hope now also a conservationist. 

The source for Kenn on high moorland, for me up high among austere Dalriadan rock and Andesite. When exotic "climbers" such as Ian and Nicki Clough bought an old house to do up in the village I got my first exposure to folk who went up into the mountains as climbers. As a clueless teen along with another local lad we started exploring these high places and had adventures. I became a hillwalker and wannabe climber. Several adventures and misadventures later I was in the mountain rescue team. I was still very much a wannabe climber and in no way competent enough, but folk were patient and I got strong. Then, and for several years after, the team were working hill men and climbers who went on rescues. It was fairly informal and just expected that you or a competent visiting climbing friend would help out if someone was in trouble. Later as I became a better mountaineer and rescues became frequent it became less informal, and to meet the improvements in pre hospital care mountain rescue also changed. I also discovered I was a wee bit cleverer than my teachers had indicated and entered adult education with a gusto never felt in my younger days when I bailed out of school at 14 and didn't go back.  No regrets. Carpenter, Lumberjack, Mountaineering and Ski Instructor, Paramedic, Husband and Father. Success in life isn't money, property or status. Its only quantifiable in love. The more pain love causes in its loss the more depth it has. Learning to embrace that is a spiritual journey. Only loss of love, grief and pain awakens us to how fragile we all are, how little material goods matter and that money is a token.

I write. Probably not very well. Some are tales of rescue and of its great characters and legends. I still rescue day shift as a ski rescuer working ski patrol with a group of great folk up at Glencoe Mountain. Every time that damn helicopter fly's over I wonder what's happening with the MRT and think of the new young stalwarts of the team, remembering getting my head around the trauma and relating it to my own ambitions on some of the same climbing routes of the fallen. MR can stealthily grip and steal away the mountaineer, substituting a trauma junky. Pedalling the hit of helicopters, kudos and the excitement of the unknown. As potent as heroin to the adrenaline junky of which I was and maybe still am one.

I do feel very much a climber again even if it's clipping bolts or several grades down my old trad abilities.  I love wandering with a rod or exploring an old coffin route on a mountain bike. We are the sum of all past things, but it does not mean a future only looking back along some cursus of where we have come. Does it?

Be it a journey of the mind or a piece of rock there is plenty out ahead if you reach for it. That reaching  is a hard journey but I have light ahead up on that magic mountain.

“The world is a mountain. Whatever you say, it will echo it back to you. Don't say, 'I sang nicely and the mountain echoed an ugly voice!' That is not possible” Rumi

Sunset Song Revisited

I recently reaquainted myself with "A Scots Quair" by Lewis Grassic Gibbon (Leslie Mitchell). I first read these books more than fifty years ago. Sunset Song without doubt my favourite and a book worth delving into again and again. Having time now to really understand its nuances. Communities, particularly rural and farming communities are inextricably bound to nature which in days gone by sustained them by providing food from land, hill, sea and river. Both work and the season of farm life are used in Sunset Song as metaphors for the physical, emotional and spiritual growth of Chris Guthrie as a woman, as well as giving us insight into the harsh physical work each season entailed, and how the farmer had to work with nature and have the support of the community to survive.

The harsh nature of living off the land, and the sense that close farming neighbours such as Long Rob of the Mill, Chae Strachan, and even Munro were in the same boat created a community of close neighbours who at times could judge each other harshly yet would not hesitate to help one another in a crisis. Kinraddie itself was part of the greater community at large but not so intimate as around Blawearie. The fire at Peesies Knap brought out the best in this intimate community where you would give aid to a neighbour. They were all dependant on each other for mutual aid at times of hard work, especially at harvest, where if the weather was favourable the work had to be done quickly and efficiently while the weather held. This sense of community was based not on only on work but also trust and closeness built on friendship for each other, despite the common failings of folk and their tongues as portrayed in the book.

 

The standing stones are a recurring theme in Sunset Song. The stones were probably Pictish of which there are quite a few to be found in farming areas. Where there is more than one stone, some say that you can measure the lunar cycle. The mystical tie between ancient culture, nature and man is felt by Chris who uses the stones and the loch as a sort of retreat and thinking place. Interestingly her father who comes over in the novel as a strict Presbyterian, who threatened Will Guthrie with violence for saying “Come over, Jehovah (p.30) to Bess the horse after he groomed her, seemed to dislike them, perhaps for what they represented? “And he glanced with a louring eye at the Standing Stones and then Chris had thought a foolish thing, that he kind of shivered, as though he were feared, him that was feared of nothing dead or alive, gentry or common.”

 

Communities that are close to the land or sea, can be identify and believe in more than one spiritual concept. Christianity and superstition often blending into each other. The ancient and modern Scots were/are no different, and perhaps this is what Gibbon is getting at in the book. John Guthrie chooses his Calvinist blind obedience over the mystical and timeless spirit and tie with nature and season emanating from the stones. Perhaps his jealous god and the beating life gives him in making a living make him resent the very nature with which he must work in harmony. Ironic that he should dislike them as this was the people he possibly came from. Perhaps as in Highland River, where Neil Gunn asked where the Picts went? and suggests all we need is to look in a mirror and we will see.

 

Not all nature is portrayed as harsh in Sunset Song though. “Below and around where Chris Guthrie lay the June moor whispered and rustled and shook their cloaks, yellow with broom and powdered faintly purple, that was the heather but not the full passion of its colour yet.” Although times could be harsh, each season has its beauty in nature, and you can smell summer in this quote. Often the prose relating to nature and season were placed alongside the growth both spiritually and sexually of Chris. Drilling has perhaps some of the best prose in the book. Nature, its smells and whole evocative feeling of a good autumn night during the “harvest madness” weaves around the awareness of Chris that she is no longer a girl and has become a woman “growing up limber and sweet, not bonny, perhaps, her cheek bones were over high and her nose over short for that, but her eyes clear and deep and brown, deep and clear as the Denburn flow, and her hair was red and was brown by turns, spun as fine as a spiders web, wild, wonderful hair”.

 

Later in the novel, Kinraddie community life turns nasty when Long Rob decides he will not join the army. Assumptions are made that he is a coward or a conscientious objector and the community turns against him. Communities tolerate eccentricity up to point, but only for some, failure to conform to the norm, or going against the majority often turns the community from a benign social group into something nasty as was the case for Long Rob. Rob is no coward but a man of conviction. Both he and in particular Chris, struggle with identity. She is both Chris of the Howe, and Chris of the books and learning. Caledonian Antisyzygy* There is an undertone of the struggle between conforming to be part of the community, and the individual who if they step out of the social norm will be excluded and pulled to pieces by wagging tongues. Rob bowed to pressure from within himself. At least he went to war on his terms.

 

The effect of the Great War on small farming communities was devastating, and most never fully recovered. The eulogy for the fallen by Robert Colquohoun in the Epilogue describes this, and the tie with the land and nature. “And who knows at the last what memories of it were with them, the springs and the winters of this land and all the sounds and scents of it that had once been theirs, deep and a passion of their blood and spirit, those four who died in France.” This illustrates the tie between land, nature and community as for what else were they fighting other than what they perceived as a threat (from government propaganda) to their families and community. “Chae looked at young Ewan and said Ay, man! And he told them “they’d brought out a fine bit bairn between them, every man might yet have to fight for bairn and wife ere this war was over;”

 

Even at the last Gibbon emphasizes the feel and smell of nature and the pull of community. When Chae spoke to Ewan on the morning of his execution for desertion he asks, “But why did you do it Ewan?”

Ewan replies. “It was that wind that came with the sun, I minded Blawearie, I seemed to waken up smelling that smell. And I couldn’t believe it was me that stood in the trench; it was just daft to be there. So I turned and got out of it.”

 

And then Ewan said, sudden like, it clean took Chae by surprise, “Mind the smell of the dung in the parks on an April morning, Chae? And the pewits over the rigs? Bonny they’re flying this night in Kinraddie, and Chris sleeping there, and all the Howe happed in mist.”

  

“and the standing stones up there night after night and day after day by the loch of Blawearie, how around them there gathered things that wept and laughed and lived again in the hours before dawn, till far below the cocks began to crow in Kinraddie and the day had come again”

 

In the end, despite all life can throw her way, the indomitable Chris moves forward with her life but does not lose her sense of being bound to nature and the seasons. She accepts the way of folk in a community but ploughs her own furrow through life.

*Caledonian Antisyzygy is basically the joining of opposites. Some have argued argued that this 'union of opposites' forms the basis of Scottish literature. Take Glencoe as a landsacape example. Glen of Weeping and dark gloom. Valley floor of green pastoral fields and clean sparkling water. Without the mountains mist and rain the fields would be barren.

Wee Fella

With his hands in his pockets and cap askew the wee fella wanders up the village street. If street it could be called. A single thread of narrow potholed tar stretches from crossroads to arched bridge, passing two wee shops and the green hut of Annabel the post mistress. A walk only to peer over the old humpbacked bridge to see if a Salmon had made it over the falls this tide to rest under the big rock where a worm could be dangled before its neb. Nothing resting there today.

Life was free, simple and uncomplicated, and all that was on the wee fellas mind was these leapers of waterfalls and figuring out how he might catch one. If not the silver traveller Salmon, then the elusive ancient trout in the lake of the old Strathcona estate. Big Loch Leven trout and Rainbows from a stocking seventy years past. Peaty black and huge, these monsters were hard to tempt. If an Islay malt gets its flavour from peaty phenols then these trout were marinated in them. Lay them on a bed of grass and the darkness came away from their skin and beautiful silver trout revealed underneath, with the pink slash along the side of the rainbows seeming exotic. They say there is only one lake in Scotland. There was one here too, until the locals passed away or left, and incomers called it a lochan.

He walked up to the old boat shed, a voyager canoe decaying in its midst, the paths around the lake covered by thick rhododendron almost impassable. A lake where he imagined the young Métis Isabella, paddled away her unhappiness with the Scottish weather. No matter that Donald her husband had tried so hard to bring Canada to her with his creation.

He wandered back by Invercoe and onto the loch shore common grazing. Looking out onto the sea loch and its Islands feeling belonging, and sense of wonder to life. A life of potential outcomes and what he might become when released from the torpor of a classroom. Not knowing then that childhood was mostly all gains, and to come adulthood and loss.

He picked up a pebble

and threw it into the sea.

And another, and another.

He couldn’t stop.

He wasn’t trying to fill the sea.

He wasn’t trying to empty the beach.

He was just throwing away,

nothing else but.

Like a kitten playing

he was practicing for the future

when there’ll be so many things

he’ll want to throw away

if only his fingers will unclench

and let them go.

“Small Boy” by Norman MacCaig

New Book "Between a Loch and a Hard Place

Book £12.95

Postage £3.30 1st Class Royal Mail

email davygunn@gmail.com with your address if you would like a copy. I will reply with payment details

The author was born in Oban and brought up in the village of Carnoch, better known nowadays as Glencoe village. A Highland upbringing rich in community. Glencoe is an area steeped in bloody history, surrounded by mountains and cut through by the River Coe. Known for its infamous 1692 massacre, Glencoe is also famed for its mountaineering, with people coming from all over the world to climb its majestic peaks and test themselves on its rock and ice climbs. Glencoe Mountain Rescue Team has a long history of saving lives and of rescue from the West Highlands and has had a few of Scotland’s best mountaineers as members. Not least was one of the rescue team founders, Hamish MacInnes.

This book gives some local history and insight into how a Highland boy lived beside a river that gave quietude and wonder as its silver leapers, the Atlantic salmon, forged up through its foamy waters into the mountains. And where the boy, me, was to meet mountain folk who opened his eyes to a broader world and possibilities. This book is about my upbringing, and the community of Glencoe that formed me. The reader may find the climbing and rescue tales a bit technical as I have used the terms and technicalities of the sport. The same is true for skiing. Forgive me as it’s hard to convey some of these ascents and descents without these technical details. Skip past bits if necessary and just enjoy the book as a collection of impressions and short tales.

The River is the thread

Running stitches through time

Gathering mountains, forests and sea

And binding me to this land

Lucy Morrice

The Dash. The Span of our Life

This last two years has had some moments, not least getting back fit after a new hip. It was harder than expected, especially as I had a setback from trying to climb the ski mountain in snow two months after the operation. Diminished is how I seemed to those who know me. Lately I have been trying to undimish myself, and thankfully I am almost back to fully fit, and getting quite strong. The physical setback had quite a profound effect on my mental health but that is now also healing. Perhaps its these hurts and setbacks, the losses, the downs that teach us the biggest lessons. Somehow we get up again. I want to live better, and more gently on this small planet. I want to love those close to me, family and friends. And be more active against injustice and ecocide. But sometimes that is daunting in the face of current politics and changes in society.

How we live and what we leave as legacy of our short years on this little planet was recently brought home by the brevity of a gravestone. An entire lifespan condensed to a dash between birth and death. The birth and end dates can, sadly, be too close for some who left this earthly place far too soon. The dates mere bookends to life. The dash between matters, it’s a life, and it’s going to be our eulogy. That tiny little mark and it's span should be lived well and filled with love and gratitude. At the end that is all there is to life. Two dates conjoined by a little mark. The love you gave and received the only after life. Dates and a dash chiseled on your temporal stone. Time erodes, moss covers and we are forgotten.

“In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: it goes on.”

Polarity

That day I stand in the Meadows. Music pulses out across the crowd. A light haze above, and an earthy skunky aroma in the air. A variety of genders in red dresses move to the rhythm of the music full of joy and Sativa. I'm an imposter here, astounded, and confounded at the variety of humanity around me. Betwixt loving the spectacle and joy of what's around, and between the polarities of who I am.  Edinburgh man to be one day, or country boy the next. Even among the furthest bogs and lochs of the moor of Rannoch I never felt so far from myself. And yet I feel very alive. The paradox of the gael. A living, breathing, dichotomy. 

This day I am on the river seeking silver salar and it's wisdom. This river that connects me between a loch and a hard place. A Strath or auld reekie. The dùthchas wins only because the decision is made for me. And that's ok.

The Kate Bushes

RECCO onboard the SAR Helicopters in Scotland

Teams have R9 detectors as sometimes helcopters don't fly

Some great news for mountain rescue in Scotland. Recco R9 detectors will be carried as winter kit on Inverness and Prestwick coastguard flights. This is something I have wanted for years. Currently we have detectors with Glencoe, Lochaber, Killin, Tayside and Cairngorm MRT’s and Glencoe Ski Patrol. Very soon we hope to have one with Braemar MRT. This gives good coverage to the teams they are with, and neighbouring teams who they assist, and who often give back up to the teams venturing into avalanche terrain. There is no point in a rescuers rescuer being in bed miles away in a time critical event when a team has members buried. 

The purpose of the detectors on the aircraft is to provide the R9 as an additional resource to equipped teams, but also very importantly give teams in remote areas where in a large proportion of the time a helicopter will be the only meaningful way to get the rescuers to an avalanche scene inside a survival window. And also as a victim location tool out with that critical time window. We should never forget Robert Burnett in the Southern Cairngorms who was dug out after 22 hours burial. Found using bamboo probes by Braemar rescuers and Invercauld estate workers, this remains a salient lesson to never give up on the buried victim.

Its been a long haul over the last 15 years getting Recco coverage in Scotland as a Recco trainer. Unlike the Alpine nations we have sadly bought into the myth that in Scotland its always too late or its trauma that has killed the victims. When there is no data to support this myth and anecdotal evidence that with earlier recovery by being searchable there would be more survivors. The ratio of trauma to triple H syndrome or where trauma is a contributing factor is in my view the same as any other country with unpredictable maritime snowpacks. A previous blog post explores this. 

https://crankitupgear.blogspot.com/2016/12/triple-h-or-trauma-in-scottish.html

A huge thanks to my colleague Nigel Harling Helicopter SAR liaison for MRC England for getting the idea of equipping the flights achieved. He has worked tirelessly with the coastguard for the last 6 months as Recco UK SAR helicopter rep. A special thanks also to Kirsty Pallas for incorporating Recco familiarity to students on the SMR avalanche course. And of course a big thanks to Recco who have supplied detectors on long term free contracts. A tremendous company to work for, and dedicated to avalanche safety and the saving of lives. 

Coastguard SAR in Action

New ideas and technology are slow to be taken up in Scotland, despite ICAR and other organisations regarding Recco as a standard search tool in avalanches. It reminds me very much of when I had a defib on trial here at Glencoe for the team in 1992, on loan after a person I was treating as first on scene arrested, and I did not have one. I had the piss taken about getting myself electrocuted when I had the big Marquette defib and later a Laerdal Heartstart. They were heavy and noisy monophasic defibs. No one was laughing when one of my colleagues Billy Muir delivered twenty shocks to a lady and got ROSP. I was on the ventilation BVM via ET tube that wild night. Who would dream of turning up at a cardiac event these days without a defib. Billy also saved someone life fairly recently working for Rabbie tours on a distillery visit where a tourist arrested and he used the distilleries defib to successfully resuscitate them. Few folk can say they definitively saved someones life. I hope they give him drams for life! 

Handheld R9 deployed in St Anton Austria

Avalanches - A Pre Winter Refresher

Staying out of the cold white room:

Rule 1. Don't get avalanched ...................

Rule 2. Despite all the knowledge you may have, your human, fallible, and if you like steep winter hills and mountains then inevitably one day you may get avalanched. 

Rule 3. You cannot always change the risk. but you can alter the consequences. So be searchable. Off piste skiers and tourers carry the triad of essentials. Mountaineers don't but should at least have some RECCO reflectors on them.

Rule 4. If your companions under the snow have RECCO reflectors in their clothing, then make sure the rescue services know this. Maybe clock the fact that folk have reflectors when doing kit checks before you do a trip.

Rule 5.  If avalanched. While your waiting on help look above for descending parties that could trigger more slides. If possible mark the last point a victim was seen on the surface. Maybe leave a rucksack there.

Rule 6. FFS search the debris pile for clues or victims limbs or even finger tips sticking out so you can dig them out quickly. Expose their face and chest as a priority.  If you cant find a victim but there are surface clues like gloves etc, don't move them but  do make them obvious for a rescue party to see. If you have walking poles take off the baskets and start probing into the snow pack below the point a victim was last seen and work your way down the debris pile. You will know when you hit someone as its obvious.

Carry a shovel, probe and avy beacon or at least be searchable with  RECCO reflectors 

The Avalanche Forecast

The Avalanche Danger Scale uses five progressively increasing danger levels: Low, Moderate, Considerable, High and Extreme. It indicates the likelihood of avalanches, how they might be triggered and recommended actions in the back country. However, the wording is very brief and does not include a meaningful indication of risk. Below is an explanation of each danger level, including the transitions between levels, signs of instability at each level and the implications of slope angle, aspect and elevation.

 

Understanding the SAIS forecast and acting on it could save your life

Low

Travel is generally safe. The snowpack is well bonded and natural avalanches will not be seen except for small sluffs on extremely steep slopes. Human-triggered avalanches are unlikely except in isolated locations in extreme terrain. The danger will usually be from wind-driven snow in gullies and chutes or deposited across very steep open slopes near ridge lines. Ski or board one by one as smoothly as possible without falling if you suspect the formation of wind slab. Be aware of shaded, north to east aspects where the danger may be transitioning to Moderate. There are few fatalities at this danger level.

Moderate
This is the most difficult danger level for back country skiers and boarders to assess snow stability. Many of the usual indicators such as cracks, settling, whoomphing and signs of recent avalanche are absent, especially at the lower end of the moderate level. Key indicators are any recent snowfall, and wind deposition. Snowpack tests may help assess stability.

Conditions are generally favourable for travel providing routes are chosen carefully. The snowpack is only moderately bonded on some steep slopes. Areas of danger are usually restricted to certain types of terrain such as bowls and gullies. The altitude, aspect and type of terrain where danger can be expected are usually detailed in the Avalanche Forecast. Remote triggering is unlikely, so you only need to be concerned about the steepness of nearby terrain features.

Human-triggered avalanches are possible. Ski or board carefully, one by one, in suspect terrain and avoid high loading of the snowpack by spreading people out on the uphill track. Carefully evaluate the stability of very steep slopes (steeper than 35°) and aspects identified as potentially dangerous in the avalanche forecast

Be especially careful if the higher elevation band in the forecast, or the danger on other aspects, is Considerable. There is a significant difference in instability between Moderate and Considerable. Do not get sucked onto higher, steeper and more dangerous slopes. Although naturally triggered avalanches are not expected, ice climbers should watch out for the sun warming steep collection zones above their climbs. If deep-slab instability due to a persistent weak layer is mentioned in the Avalanche Forecast, you need to pay careful attention to the terrain. Avalanches from such a layer are not only likely to be large and extensive, but they are also completely unpredictable. Unless you have specific local knowledge, keep off large open slopes at this danger level if the forecast warns of a persistent weak layer.

Large Slab Triggered off persistent weak layer 30th March 2013 Fatal Avalanche x 1 Skier Glencoe

Considerable
Conditions have become much less favourable. The snowpack is only moderately or poorly bonded over a much larger area of the terrain. Human triggering is possible by a single skier on steep slopes and aspects mentioned in the Avalanche Forecast. Remote triggering of avalanches is possible, so the maximum steepness of the slope above you should be used when deciding if you want to continue.

Instability indicators mentioned in Moderate danger above will likely be present. Back country touring at this danger level requires good route-finding skills, and experience in recognising dangerous terrain and evaluating slope stability. Keep to slopes of less than 35°, especially slopes at the altitude and aspect indicated in the Avalanche Forecast. Remember that remote triggering is possible. Typically the scree fans at the bottom of gullies start out at around 30° and the slope steepens as it gets higher. Keep off such slopes at this hazard level. The remarks about persistent weak layers in the previous section on Moderate danger level also apply to this danger level.

Reports such as the above showing stripes as areas of localised "considerable" risk to North and South within a moderate NW to SW aspect and considerable risk NE to SE. This is the sort of thing that it's easy to become complacent about as it’s a common feature of the Scottish winter. You might very obviously if you have any sense, stay well clear of the NE to SE aspects but wander into a high-risk situation on descent on the N to S aspects.  The majority of avalanche incidents in Europe occur in these moderate to considerable forecast days as they occur most frequently in the season and folk become complacent (the familiarity heuristic) and that's why route choice approaching a climb and thinking about descent options prior to leaving and during a trip as wind and weather change should become part of your thinking.

High
Conditions have become dangerous, most often as a result of significant amounts of new snow, snowfall accompanied by wind or the snowpack becoming isothermal and threatening wet-snow avalanches. The snowpack is poorly bonded over large areas and human triggering is likely on steep slopes (steeper than 30°). Remote triggering is likely and large natural avalanches are to be expected.

Stay on slopes that are flatter than 30° for any part of the slope and be aware of the potential for avalanches from slopes above. If you do decide to walk ski or board on less steep slopes, be very aware of the surrounding terrain to avoid inadvertently crossing the bottom of steeper slopes or cutting down a steep convex rollover.

Usually this level of hazard is only present for a few days at a time. The smart back country traveller will stay in simple terrain until conditions improve. If you are caught out on a multi-day trip you may have to dig in and wait for travel conditions to improve and the avalanche danger to lessen.

These stripes in the avalanche forecast. My take is to think of them as landmine strips blown by the wind, lurking in eddies from cross loading when the wind blows across as well as down or over a slope, the colour of them is the sensitivity of the pressure plate to you the trigger. If there are enough of them the explosion will propagate setting of others, or if the surrounding slope is weak enough then it will slide with it. As you can see there are areas of High on slopes with a localised "considerable" and "considerable" risk to the South.  A lethal combo of narrow safe travel options making for events that will take lives if you don't tread warily and navigate with extreme care.

Extreme
Extreme danger levels are rare in Scotland as usually this level is associated with buildings and roads or alpine villages under threat, and usually the result of unusually large amounts of new snow. The snowpack is weakly bonded and unstable. Numerous large avalanches are likely. The weight of the new snow can trigger avalanches on layers buried deep in the snowpack. Natural avalanches can release on slopes of less than 30° Back country touring is not recommended and often impossible. Avoid all avalanche terrain and keep well away from avalanche path run outs.

Some Basic Snow Science

Learn some basic snow craft. Just the simple stuff and its principles

The signs and symbols in a detailed avalanche forecast where a snow pit and tests are carried out by a forecaster such as a Scottish Avalanche Service Observer

 

 

Practice often to know how to use your transceiver effectively

The avalanche probe is crucial to pinpoint a victims location

Learn how to dig effectively as time is oxygen and your shovel is the key to living or dying. Can you resuscitate your friend or provide first aid if they are injured? Nothing substitutes good planning and knowledge to avoid getting avalanched, but the very nature of the sport is uncertainty and with enough risk exposure bad things can happen. It's fair to say as ski patrollers and hard charging skiers that means us. The point has been laboured often enough by me that nothing substitutes having the three essentials of transceiver, shovel and probe and being slick with deploying them effectively, and managing the scene well, which comes down to practice.  Sadly mountaineers do not have the same philosophy as off piste skiers and tourers about companion rescue, and the focus is very much on prevention such as the SAIS "Be avalanche Aware".  All well and good, but sadly when buried often the mountaineering victims cannot be found in a timely manner by companions, and worse still organised rescue, even if on scene very quickly. Organised rescue then has few means of finding victims other than probing, or with luck a search dog. Recco is not a panacea for this, but every year lives are saved by it. From burial, avalanche search statistics show that companion rescue gives the best chance of survival, then Recco and also in the alps avalanche dogs, with least live recoveries from formal probe lines. Probe lines rarely if ever find folks alive, and while most victims are eventually recovered by a probe strike it's down to the sheer numbers of searchers and length of time poking in the snow, and all at the wrong end of the survival probability curve. Spot probing, a random poke in the snow in likely spots also occasionally results in a survival recovery, but that's down to luck unless it's a really small confined slide. If you're searchable you're found more quickly and more likely to survive. Rescuers are not exposed to secondary avalanches and relatives get closure with an early find. Recco continues to be accepted into more clothing brands and now also into mountaineering clothing as the "be searchable" message gets through to the winter recreation public. Recent additions are Patagonia and Arcteryx into mountain specific technical garments. The Recco SAR pod is now with more helicopter based search and rescue units such as Air Zermatt, PHGM, CS Chamonix and other sites across North America and recently North and South Island New Zealand. Quite a few notable success stories from this, and not all avalanche based with some in water or in dense forest.  When the helicopter flies at a height of 100m, it is able to scan an area that is 100m wide. When the speed of the helicopter is 100 km/h this translates to 1 km2 coverage within six minutes. Unlike a transceiver search along a flux line, Recco harmonic radar is a straight line to the victim and a Recco R9 detector is equipped to search both harmonic radar and 457kHz transceiver simultaneously. The 457kHz is analog allowing a greater range than digital and the ability to hear more than one signal and detect overlap. When nearer the victim the Recco becomes primary and a second rescuer hones in on a digital transceiver signal - or vice versa. Who cares who finds the victim first as speed is the key. If you're not searchable then the odds are stacked against you until someone pokes you or it thaws. Groupthink In psychology group think or risky shift behaviour is well known in groups and most of us will be aware that we have given in to it or even encouraged it. I strongly believe that in avalanche incidents in Scotland this groupthink or risky shift has become the biggest education issue and maybe why we see large group incidents or group events as occurred in the Cairngorms when two separate groups were avalanched last winter. Much has been made of the quick response from folk training in the corrie who helped.  And good on them. What I am about to say is not a reflection on these helper folks choices, as I am sure they stayed in safe terrain.  The “however" bit though is that just by being there and numbers increase with lots of MRT's training, and groups under instruction, then a larger "Groupthink" takes place. Groups less experienced or not under instruction maybe feel safe, what McCammon labels as Social Facilitation.  I would call this a “risky shift". It's often this way in the climbing and skiing honey pots such as the Northern Corries where folk gather. Aonach Mor or Stob Coire nan lochan in Glencoe are other places. Even if the waggon wheel of death shows Red on these slope aspects, they are still the places to be seen by the instructor masses who are now at the height of their annual gatherings with paying students. These are the places instructors are familiar with, and therefore where less experienced folk feel safer with an apparent safety in numbers. They maybe went there when they were on a course. Group thinking on a large scale perhaps. This kind of stuff has been getting applied to avalanche instructor training for a while.  Do current winter mountain training schemes include enough if anything on this sort of thing?  I put this as a question, as I am certainly not in a position to know, and maybe it is already covered. What I do know is that there is nothing that can change the pretty piss poor odds if buried and that pretty universally all of us involved in avalanche education are trying to jump forward and get to "no rescue". No matter what we do, mountains and people are unpredictable. As a keen off the piste skier I have to accept that luck is also in there as well, as on good snow days I am first in the que and having gone through the forecasts, stability tests you are only left with how the snow feels under you ski's and gut instincts. Sometimes it's a very subtle thing where in the morning it feels wrong, and by afternoon the snow "feels" safe.  I don't know how the feck that would stand up in court! I also know it’s taken 40 years and I still can't always be sure it all won't go tits up one day. I also know that it pays to voice your opinion when in a group, and make your own choice, not getting swept along by the group and its most vocal leader. Beware Risky Shift!  Pre-Drop/Trip Checklist Angle Anchors Aspect  Altitude Angle. Most avalanches are triggered on slopes roughly between 32 and 45 degrees. Below 32 degrees victim triggered slab avalanches are less common and above this angle slopes purge more frequently. The "Sweet Spot" where most avalanches are triggered is about 40 ish degrees with over 90% of victim triggered slides occurring in a 7-degree range bracketing that sweet spot. You can conclude from this that angle is a really important part of slope assessment and subtle changes of angle on a given slope can have major consequences, therefore route choice and awareness of slope angle is really important. Modern phone apps make judging the angle much easier.  Rule of thumb for me personally is that as the avalanche forecast risk for a given altitude and aspect goes up - then the angle and altitude of what you ski comes down. More recent research has shown convexity/concavity to be less important than angle. Anchors. What is the snowpack connected to. Have you been following the weather and SAIS forecast. Are there weak layers within the snowpack. Trees and rocks can hold a slope as your friend or can be weak spots as your enemy where sun heat or hoar frost has gathered. Subtle angle changes create trigger points at these places. Trees are also natures cheese grater if you get taken into them. Also ask yourself what the slope you are on is linked into from the underlying snowpack. Unstable snowpacks can often propagate a collapse into nearby slopes and draw an avalanche into lower angled terrain. Aspect. Which compass direction does the slope you want to ski or travel face. Like angle, subtle changes in aspect can take you from a safe slope onto a loaded one. Carry a compass and learn about "slope aspect" as both a navigation and safe travel tool.  The SAIS forecast gives you the necessary hazard warning for compass direction, but you need to apply it on the ground accurately. Again some phone apps can help with this and even give you the area forecast. Altitude. You can see by looking at the SAIS forecast that the hazard risk is most often greater with altitude, even in Scotland. The rate of snow deposition is higher with height, and the wind is also stronger increasing side loading of slopes. On dodgy days stay lower as well as skiing lower angled slopes. Complexity  Commitment Consequences Complexity. As mentioned above. Be aware of subtle changes in angle and aspect and that localised instabilities are hidden and like a landmine can link one triggered mine to a chain reaction and a small slide gathering surrounding instabilities into a major avalanche event. Learn to read mapping for subtleties of terrain features and how snow may be affected and think safety by pre imagining what could go wrong. If it's a complex route, then it’s often unsafe as there are too many unknowns. Learn to know what you don't know! Commitment. Always have a plan "B" so that if conditions change or are not what you expected you have another safer option.  Commitment to a slope can mean no bail out options, i.e., having nowhere to go.  If you look at the pro's on YouTube, they choose their line so they can bale out onto a spine and have good runouts and that's where the next "C" comes into play - consequences. Consequences. If it’s an amber light's on in your head so you’re in a go/no go process, then add consequence into the thought mix.  Are there crags, hollows, stream beds, trees or any other terrain features that could shred you or trap you if there is an avalanche. Transceiver, shovel, probe and/or airbag will not stop you getting your limbs ripped apart from tree's, your head humped like mince, or with an inflated airbag under a few hundred tons of snow. Airbags are good with a save rate of seven more people per hundred victims - but only if the runout is good. More up to date North American stats also show that many more people die from two of the triple "H" than was thought. Hypoxia and Hypercapnia kill quickly and any browse of excellent news sites like piste hors will tell you that even folk dug out very quickly with advanced life support don't often survive. (Triple "H" syndrome is Hypoxia, Hypercapnia which is re breathing your own carbon dioxide and Hypothermia. In fact, it’s not so much the lack of oxygen as the hypercapnia that makes survival so poor). 15 mins as often shown in survival graphs is way too optimistic. You need to search faster and dig faster which means practice more!

 

10 Simple Rules:

The key to avalanche safety is proactive risk management through consistent habits, not just relying on equipment. These simple rules aim to reduce the chances of being caught in an avalanche in the first place.

1.       One at a Time: Only one person should traverse a potentially hazardous slope at a time, with others waiting in a safe zone to perform a rescue if needed. This minimizes the load on the snowpack and ensures a rescuer is available.

2.       Never Cross Above Others: Avoid crossing uphill of others to prevent triggering an avalanche that could bury them.

3.       Plan an Escape Route: Before entering a potentially hazardous area, identify a safe escape route. Use "slope cuts" (traversing across the slope with speed) to increase the chances of outrunning a triggered avalanche.

4.       Cross High: If crossing an avalanche path, cross as high as possible to minimize the amount of snow that could bury you if a slide occurs.

5.       Avoid Going First: Whenever possible, avoid being the first person to traverse a potentially hazardous slope. Let natural triggers (like cornices) or other means test the slope's stability first.

6.       Start Small: Test snow stability on smaller, safer slopes before venturing onto larger, more dangerous ones. This allows you to gather data and assess the risk progressively.

7.       Be Obsessed with Consequences: Constantly evaluate the potential consequences of an avalanche in a given location. Consider what's below, above, and how the slope is connected to other terrain.

8.       Communicate: Maintain open and honest communication within a group. Discuss plans, observations, and concerns to avoid misunderstandings and poor decisions.

9.       Pause at Critical Decision Points: Slow down and carefully consider decisions, especially at critical junctures. Avoid rushing and ensure everyone is on the same page before proceeding.

10.   Carry and Know How to Use Equipment and practice with it: Carry essential avalanche safety equipment (beacon, shovel, probe) and be proficient in its use. This mitigates vulnerability if caught in an avalanche.

Key take away points:

These are guidelines, not a guarantee of safety.

Consistent practice of good habits is crucial for minimizing risk.

Focus is on prevention and proactive risk management.

Equipment is important, but secondary to good decision-making and good travel habits.

 

Digging and Recovery Considerations

 

Learning to dig as a team Students on an Avy Level 1 course at Glencoe Mountain

●      If possible contact mountain rescue or ski patrol as soon as possible but don’t let it delay your search for a companion as you are the companions best chance of survival in a full burial. The definitive locating device is the transceiver/beacon. Carry one that's digital that has 3 antennas. And with charged batteries. New ones like the Ortovox “Diract” Voice are good

●      The definitive location device is a probe. Carry one that's at least 240cm, preferably 270cm+ The Ortovox Carbon 280+ pfa is a good one

●      The definitive initial airway opening device is a shovel. Carry one that's alu, has a good blade and can convert to a hoe if possible.  The Ortovox Pro alu III is a good one

●   RECCO might not save your life but might save a rescuers as being searchable reduces time on scene and rescuer exposure to secondary avalanche. Given the longest Scottish survival is 27 hours it might also save your life. Be Searchable

●   Digging out a victim you should attempt to dig in toward the victims chest and head from the side, not above so as not to compress any air pocket. Dig in from below approximately the same distance down slope from the depth showing on your probe mark. If possible have more than one probe in place to outline a victim unless of course its needed for searching for others.

●   Take care when uncovering the mouth and nose and have an experienced avalanche rescuer assess Airway of the ABC's. If you’re not experienced class it as open. Clear it of debris. Expose the chest and begin CPR as soon as is practicable. Data suggests starting CPR before complete extrication (if possible) improves outcomes. It’s also hard work so get other climbers and skiers on board to take turns if they offer help.

●   Avalanche Victims may have Trauma; they will also be Hypothermic. So all buried avalanche victims should have further heat loss prevented. Trauma and Hypothermia plus blood loss (contributing to Hypothermia) is a lethal triad.

●   Other victims in a multi burial may be very nearby, or under the first recovered victim. If many victims are buried some may survive for a very long time due to air spaces among other bodies. A salad of transceiver distances can be confusing. Get as many probes in to make contacts as you can.

●   Multiple burials are resource hungry, messy, require leadership and discipline. Fail to practice these scenarios and it’s a shitstorm. Spread limited resources too wide and everyone might die. If limited person power get the first located victim out first and fast before moving on. You might at least save one.

Note: Pulse and Breathing may be very hard to detect. Not finding these vital signs does not mean that they are not present. You just may not be able to detect them. Many cases of survival are documented where CPR had been continuous for 5+ hours. Make it good CPR

If you start resuscitation, regardless of how long a victim had been under, you do not cease unless rescuers' lives are in danger or the decision is arrived at from a consensus of experienced avalanche rescuers and a medical consensus that it's futile.

Chest compression's may have to be interrupted for a short time because of evacuation and rescue procedures, although continuous unbroken CPR is the goal.

Do not swallow the myth that most Scottish avalanche victims die from trauma. Many undoubtedly do, but we should focus on saving those that do not have catastrophic fatal injuries. There are no studies to prove the Scottish trauma myth, and plenty of stats from similar maritime snowpacks where studies have been done to support that trauma isn't the only killer and only a small percentage.  Hypoxia, Hypercapnia and Hypothermia are the biggest killers and obviously injuries add to mortality due to blood and heat loss.  3 three “H’s” are why time is critical.

As a personal opinion this trauma fallacy could cost lives by giving the impression that being searchable and companion rescue is a waste of time for Scottish mountaineers. Follow the ICAR (international rescue commission) guidance and you will not go wrong.

Prehospital core temperature measurement in a hostile environment will be unreliable. Unresponsive victims will often be about Swiss Staging HT3 level, and so Severely Hypothermic. Use the Swiss Staging Scale to describe levels of hypothermia. Learn it. 

Final rescuer thoughts. Responsive survivors may not complain of injury as they are very cold, and unresponsive victims who may be alive can also be assumed to have occult trauma. Careful handling onto a vacuum matt immobilises the spine, closes the book of the pelvis, and prevents limb fractures from moving. A vac matt also provides good insulation. Better to use this as a standard operating procedure as it’s easy to miss an injury in an avalanche rescue recovery.