Darkness and Light

"The wound is the place where the light enters you" - Rumi

Its just after midsummer. On my own in reflective mood. Wandering old haunts and old thoughts. Old hurts, injuries, and a consciousness of those who have gone. Some by misadventure, others by their own hand. Many more when their time has run out, life lived. 

Thinking, as the sands of time run through we live more in the past than in the future. I talk of bygone days more. "Back in the day", "remember when?", "I remember the day ............." 

On a hill in the dusk of Wednesday night while walking, aching hips and old pains nagging, up I go on a path to the Aonach Eagach. I thought of this thinking of the past, and why it doesn't have to be that way. We allow ourselves to diminish with age perhaps?  As I wandered stiff and sore up the hill, my mood lifted. Into the dusk and impending darkness I felt light as I slowly got into my old hill walking rhythm, which no matter what weight I had on my back I could sustain for hours. That rhythmic breathing and steady heart rate, which as you warm up allows your pace to get faster as you go, not slower. As I went up into the gloom the years passed off and a great optimism and feeling of gratitude and love entered. I looked around and across at places where I had been fortunate to quest among great cliffs to find my sense of self and who I was as a young man. And just occasionally where I would find others less fortunate who were more physically lost than spiritually, needing a helping hand from me when a rescuer. I came off the hill after that evening wander a younger man again. Despite injuries and age the boy is still in the man and wants the sunset to last longer. That means climbing higher. And that's not always up a mountain. 

The weather plays a huge part in our moods and life in the West Highlands. It can lift you to ecstacy in a sunset, and bury you in profound seasonal depression in endless rain and darkness. Bipolar weather that triggers cyclothymic feelings. Unless you embrace the unpredictable weather it will drown you in despair. The good days are the rapid chargers. Even just a little bright sun sends wattage into your soul and lifts your spirit. I like to take pictures of these days to remind me of them.

Sunrise from the East over the A82 January

Looking West from Ben Lora March

Morven from Cuil Bay July

Climbing Grades and some Glencoe Climbing History

Crowberry Ridge. Starting Abrahams Ledge

Rock climbing as a sport on the Scottish mountains in its own right really got going in the late Victorian era. Although there was initially a residual feeling that Scottish rock climbs were only training for the Alps or greater ranges. As folk took up the sport an element of competition set in. The formation of the Scottish mountaineering club was an important part of that, as club members vied for the best line up a mountain (a line being the most aesthetically pleasing route up the rocks). Also, competition for the first ascent or making a repeat ascent of the hardest route up a rock face. Competition came from visiting climbers, from places such as the Lake district, where  there was already a small but established rock-climbing scene.

One Glencoe route Crowberry ridge via the direct line made by the English Abraham brothers in 1900 was Scotland’s hardest and most sought-after climb pre-WW1. It was not just the men. Alpine club pictures of ladies making guided first ascents of the European alps wearing the cumbersome attire of the day, show they were as good and perhaps better than some of the men. And in they were also leading at the sharp end not just belaying.

1908 Pauline Smith and Lucy Rankin on Salisbury Crags

The early climbs were graded from moderate to Severe, then later Very Severe was added. This remained the hardest technical grade for nearly 80 years in Scottish guidebooks. As climbs received ascents word of mouth would spread the information as to a routes falling off potential and injury or death likelihood. And how technically hard a crux (the hardest climbing move and point of no return) was. To indicate the very hardest of these very severe routes, a graded list would be compiled in a guidebook, with the hardest and most serious routes at the top, and the easier ones at the bottom. Supposedly based on consensus. Being subjective and at the whim of egos this could result in anomalies. No climber liked to admit a route was desperately hard for them, and so some were placed much further down the list than they should have been. Climbers had a term for routes that are harder than the grade in the list and called them “sandbags.”  The unwary could find themselves with the dreaded vibrating sowing machine leg from fear and have to dig deep in themselves.

Buachaille Etive Graded List

The more experienced climbers always knew grading was a lottery and kept a bit in reserve, or they could push through this fear, but the less experienced could give themselves a big fright. Grading evolved and later Hard Very Severe and Extremely severe were added to the grading system as folk pushed the technical boundaries of rock climbing. Also, better safety equipment placed into cracks or features in the rock as protection, and post WW2 the advent of more dynamic ropes. Coming off might result in a frightening fall, but not hitting the ground and getting maimed or dying.

In the 1980’s The "E grade" an Extremely severe grade (previously just written as XS) became a number system to represent the risk of falling, including a falls consequences came into use. This occurred in parallel with a number system to indicate the hardest technical move on a climb, or an indication of a succession of less hard but endurance testing climbing moves. Many of the graded list routes at the top of the graded list from the 1950’s onwards received extremely severe as a new grade along with a technical grade; these climbs were ahead of their time. In the following chapter you will read of Smith, Marshall, Cunningham and the invader Whillans, all of whom were the very best climbers of their generation, and well ahead of the rest of the Scottish climbing fraternity in boldness and technical ability. Robin Smith in my opinion was technically the best and the boldest, and Marshall the most prolific, with an eye for the best line. Their legacy is stamped all over the Glencoe and surrounding area in climbing guidebooks.

Rock climbing grades:

Moderate – A scramble such has the Aonach Eagach

Difficult – Steep but on good holds. Bear in mind the early pioneers climbed in nailed boots so it would have been difficult climbing even if not technical. Bowstring on Aonach Dubh is a classic example.

Very Difficult (V-Diff) - Steeper, longer and careful use of hand and footholds required. Archer Ridge Aonach Dubh as three-star example.

Severe – Up until about 1920 when the Buachaille Chasm on the Glen Etive side was ascended, this was hardest grade in the Glencoe area. Later the caveat Hard Severe (HS) was added for some routes that were not quite very severe but had a higher risk of catching out the average leader. Rainmaker Gearr Aonach is an example of Hard Severe and not to be underestimated as the approach requires thought, and it is a mountain route. It is probably VS 4b/c but historically remains HS.

Very Severe (VS) – Technically demanding rock climbing for the best climbers of the day pre-WW2. Crow’s Nest Crack Buachaille Etive is the epitome of a short mountain VS and it deserves its 3 star rating as an outing.

Hard Very Severe – A later addition to the traditional grading system. Although probably no more technically demanding than Very Severe with similar fall consequences. Routes falling into this grade are often a bit more physically demanding than technical. Spider on Aonach Dubh is a fine example of the grade, and a very fine well protected pitch up a steep wall.

Extremely Severe – Routes that are technically demanding and therefore with a very much higher chance of falling. “E” numbers reflect this. Routes now go up to E10 and beyond. Definitely death potential on some of the highest E numbers. At the lower end of the E grade, routes like Bloody Crack, YoYo, Big Top and Trapeze are fine examples of Glencoe E1’s, with Shibboleth and Lechers Superstition E2’s

Davy Gunn Ardverikie Wall- Boots

Technical Grades:

4a - Fairly easy but technical climbing on good holds. Often equates to Severe

4b - A little bit more thought required. Hard Severe or easy very severe.

4c – Very Severe. Often with a distinctive crux climbing move requiring some thought. As mentioned, Crow’s Nest Crack on Buachaille Etive was regarded by locals as the definition of VS. Routes were often referred to as harder than, or easier than Crow’s Nest Crack by local climbers.

5a – A little bit harder than 4c!

5b – Harder and more strenuous. Many classic mountain routes of the late 1950’s and early 1960’s in the book “Hard Rock” are technically 5b. Often graded E2 5b to represent a multi pitch route with more than one crux pointm and many places where a little boldness helps.

5c – Technically hard sequences of climbing moves, or a short very hard section. Hard climbing. Carnivore Villains Finish with its sting in the tail, and the excellent Clearances on Aonach Dubh are examples. As you go up the technical grade, the difference between the higher numbers narrows and can be subtle. As an example making two 5c moves in a row feels like 6a

6a – Hard technical climbing. Often alongside E4 as small holds and complicated sequences of climbing moves. Freakout on Aonach Dubh is a well protected example. The Clearances on Aonach Dubh's North Face at 5c should feel easier, but it doesnt feel like it as a more serious place. As you can see climbing grades can very subjective. There is vast difference between an E3 5c on a roadside crag and two pitches up looking down 2,000ft to the road from Aonach Dubh's North face. The same can be applied to a Polldubh Glen Nevis VS 4c which is a world apart to the atmosphere of a route graded the same such as the excellent Ravens Edge on Buachaille Etive. Technically similar, but one is quick hit and the other a memorable day out looking into the bowels of Ravens gully. 

6b, 6c, 7a,7b, 7c and up, things just get harder and more desperate!  

Pre WW2 hard routes were sometimes done in plimsoles. Routes such as "Satan’s Slit and Red Slab climbed in September 1939 were bold routes on Rannoch Wall. Climbed by Ian Ogilvy and party in "rubbers" as they called them. After WW2, the Vibram boot sole allowed harder routes to be climbed in boots. Rigid shanked boots on a rubber soled boot allowed precise placement of feet. The Vibram sole instantly made damp or wet routes like Clachaig gully technically easier, but not shorter or easier to find your way up its 30+ pitches (The 5 main pitches in the middle are the most difficult). Around 1950 a dedicated rock climbing shoe made by Pierre Allain in France, the PA as it became commonly known as, revolutionised technical rock climbing. Followed later by the Edmon Bourdonneau shoe known as the EB after he bought out Pierre Allain. Not until the advent of the Spanish made "Fire" rock shoe with its tacky and sticky formula one tyre rubber 30 years later was there an improvement.  However, us oldies still call our modern sticky rock shoes "EB's" regardless of who makes them!

A late 1960's and 70's Classic from the top of the graded list. Carnivore

Avalanche Jenga Season

Recco Training at Glencoe Mountain
 Nevis Range and Glencoe Professional Ski Patrols

These musings by a now almost, but not quite, burnt out arm chair pundit who has been buried  and also weilded a shovel too many times in avalanche recovery, should not be taken as gospel, just my personal opinion. Always seek out other opinions. 

Forecasting and local avalanche risk assessment is about prediction based on past and future weather forecasts, therefore it will always be uncertain, and a game of probability. Especially when what is an area forecast is  applied more locally. Local topographic effects, and slight weather variations will make a difference. 

As an example. There may be a difference between the Glencoe Mountain ski area weather and snowpack at the East end of Glencoe, and the Ballachulish Horseshoe circuit at the West end. Interpretation and application of forecast information to a trip is a process of increasing or decreasing uncertainty. Its rarely 100% certain. That's why a degree of flexibility in decisions and dynamic risk assessment is essential during a day out in the mountains. Conditions might be quite different to what you thought, and plans will need revised. Mountaineers and skiers who reach pensionable age have become good observer's of small and subtle weather and snow pack detail, and possess a spatial awareness while also being very respectful of the mountains while  journeying among them. Its not required to achieve an objective some days, and quite enough to listen to what the mountains are saying to you. This may be go home, or it might be todays the day, so get the rope/ski's on and enjoy.

In off piste skiing and touring, you couple uncertainty with risk homeostasis from airbags, carrying the three avalanche rescue essentials of transceiver, shovel and probe. Have a ponder that its a recipe for feeding the white room spin cycle if you don't stop and think. The decisions you make with the presence of consequence reduction kit such as these should be no different to that ones you would make if you left them behind. The idea is not to get avalanched and need them. Acknowledging human fallability and uncertainty, they are there of the unforseen "Black Swan Event", a phrase nore commonly used in the world of finance, for an extremely negative event or occurrence that is impossibly difficult to predict.

The top graphic is pretty obvious. Its pretty certain that natural and human triggered avalanches are predicted above 650m on North to South Eeast aspects, and a localised avalanche risk is present below this altitude from the North West through South. Most folk with a brain will avoid the areas above 500m (allowing a bit of leeway!). RED is the colour of danger (obviously) and folk will choose to go to safer aspects, which in the above is green, which as a colour the colour of greater certainty of safety. Things become less certain on yellow, and very uncertain at orange. This uncertainty especially at Orange is where the risks are, as the risks are localised. Yellow the probability of getting caught is less, but still uncertain, stick a localised considerable orange strip in there and you have a mine field of uncertainty lying in wait.

How do you mange or minimise risk if you have to travel on these aspects, or choose to ski them? Well you don't manage the risk with any degree of certainty as you just don't know for sure where weak spots are, and you will for sure not know the true propagation risk from a trigger. You can't minimise a risk you don't know.  For the inexperienced person there is a temptation to look at these localised hot spots in the graphic and think you can avoid them, thinking, surely I will recognise these weak areas and can ski/walk/climb around them. Folk dont though, which is wahy folk still die in Scottish avalanches.

So my take on why it is that most folk get whacked when the risk is considerable or localised, is that being outdoor optimists (as we all are), and perhaps having got knackered climbing up a mountain or skinning into a valley, or maybe having a bluebird pow day, folk get used to that middle risk level, as it's used the most representing the most common and therefore familiar avalanche conditions that occur for the longest periods.  That  risk level has the most uncertainty and therefore is the most dangerous for the winter sports person IMHO

I suppose if you were to roughly put a % chance of probability of being avalanched on the European avalanche scale you could say that:

Black 100% chance of getting whacked while either minding your own business, in Galtur or being suicidal side piste in Tignes

Red   98% chance of getting whacked on an aspect with that high level of risk. The Scottish highest level of risk.  Apart from the Gaick Lodge avalanche, our main roads and villages are not in avalanche run out zones so Black does not apply. If an aspect is RED in the forecast then go to the pub or climbing wall or find a nice safe low level walk or ski run.

Orange   If the rose is all orange then in my view its just the same as red, just a tad less obvious. You have a very high chance of getting whacked. Stick some localised Orange risk in among yellow, then it becomes 50/50 and that's scary uncertainty, as some folk think they can recognise the danger hot spots and avoid them. Maybe they can, but then maybe not. Its certainly dicing with the big white avalanche room. This would be low angled slope day for me, well away from run out areas. The more times you roll the dice in the orange/considerable risk zone then the more chance you won't be needing your old age pension. 50/50 isn't odds, its worse than Russian Roulette!

Yellow maybe a 40% of getting away with it, but victim triggered death is still very likely if you hit a hot spot and it propagates into something bigger. Even if smaller avalnches can be lethal especially if it takes you into a terrain trap. This is true of all terrain features you can end up in if avalanched.

Green Well, either its the best of Scottish neve and you should be climbing with the axe and crampons in blue skies, or be getting the lawn mower out. If its the best of Scottish neve and its a sunless aspect then watch out next time it snows as there's could to be something growing on the top surface like hoar or faceting that will give a higher avalanche risk when it next snows fi its early winter especially.

Piss or get off the pot
Only one thing is for sure, we can only manage uncertainty up to a point. We live in a chaotic universe, bad things happen to good people, and a lot of good things happen to good people as a reward for getting out there making the effort. I think we have to accept that the line between the best day skiing of your life, and getting taken out by a slide is pretty close if you want to ride the powder days on higher angled slopes. If you don't accept that take up another sport.  We can reduce risk by managing uncertainty, and reduce consequences by equipment and terrain choices. Avalanche prediction and avoidance will never be 100% accurate. I am told knitting is pretty safe, if you prefer a more sedate pastime with a surer risk assessment.

Avalanche Types and Uncertainty
Some types of avalanche are more predictable i.e "certain" and some less so and some types of avalanche risk can be more easily seen in tests and observations. The ones that concern us the most are the least predictable with the greatest uncertainty so require extreme caution. Windlsab is the biggest enemy. Have a think about the following:

• Aspects that might be affected from a weather forecast, and very importantly observed wind direction 
• Angle of slope based on contours, precipitation type and deposition 
• Altitude, and what the precipitation is, and its likely rate of deposition 
• Anchored to. Whts under the snow,  based on summer knowledge of your ski patrol/local area.  Or avalanche forecasts that mention  surface or deeper instabilities within the snow pack.

Wet snow release triggering a weakly anchored slope

Powerful wet snow glide avalanche that takes everything in its path. Buachaille Etive above Lagangarbh. You don't want to be in here if its raining during a thaw just after a big snowfall.

Persistent slab, skier triggered slab March 30th 2013 Glencoe Mountain Ski Area - Fatal

Organised rescue teams use RECCO which is harmonic radar that can also be used from a helicopter. RECCO is a standard search tool by mountain rescue in Europe. Three Scottish mountain rescue teams, and threes ski patrol's use it. No search and rescue helicopters have adopted it in the UK for avalanche rescue to date, but the hand held can be used from a helicopter with an adaptor system from a 3rd party manufacturer. I have one here in Glencoe as I am also the UK trainer for Recco.

A skier going off piste or touring in the mountains should carry three essential items. A transceiver to be located, or to locate a buried companion, a collapsible snow probe to confirm the victim’s location, and a strong aluminium shovel to dig them out quickly.

Recovery of buried companions in an avalanche is time critical with a 90% survival if victims are located and dug out within less than 15 minutes. After this time survival is very poor. It follows that practise in locating and digging out a victim is critical. 

Killin Mountain Rescue and a group of Freeride skiers using the  Glencoe Mountain Avalanche training park

Recco is another important part of the organised rescue strategy. Education and avalanche avoidance is primary, being found early by companions if it goes wrong is vital, and prior practice makes this work. Organised rescue requires a triple response: Dogs, Recco and Probe Lines. Survival is time critical. Much has been made of trauma being the main factor in poor survival in Scottish avalanches. Largely based on a few tragic avalanche incidents where trauma has been the dominant factor.

Anecdotal observations and opinions make easy to forget the victims where triple"H"syndrome has been the killer, of which there have been many over the last decades. Anecdote is not enough, and there is no data from coronial studies in Scotland to support the Trauma versus Triple H debate.

Being searchable and located quickly increases survival. Some Scottish MR teams already have Recco as part of their search strategy (Tayside, Glencoe, Cairngorm MRT's) and Glencoe Ski Patrol. There has been a demand for buying two single Recco reflectors to carry by mountaineers. One in a front pocket and one in back (on the person. never the rucksack or ski). Reflectors are light, passive requiring no battery and small. For the burdened winter mountaineer already with a heavy pack it provides a cheaper and lighter option than shovel, probe and beacon.

I can imagine nothing worse than a victim recovery delayed because a search team did not have a Recco detector and the victim when recovered is found to have either a Recco reflector or a harmonic like a mobile phone on them. Recco detectors are of course for "organised rescue". Recco and the many clothing manufacturers who sew in the Recco relflectors, endorse the view that not getting avalanched through education and training is best. However, in the real world shit still happens, and unless someone is "searchable" a rescuer cannot find them quickly. Even if the poor victim has bottomed out of the survival curve a vistim recovered quickly reduces rescuer risk exposure, and provides some closure to waiting family. 

How does a Recco Reflector work?

• Professional rescuers can quickly pinpoint a buried reflector-equipped person’s precise location using harmonic radar. Often quicker than a transceiver.

• This two-part system consists of a RECCO R9 detector used by professional rescue groups, and RECCO reflectors that are attached to clothing, helmets, protection gear, and boots worn by skiers, mountaineers and riders and other outdoor users.

• When used in conjunction with a RECCO Detector, the reflector's diode mixer acts as a harmonic generator to produce multiples of the frequencies received from the detectors.

• The returned signal is translated into an audio tone whose volume is proportional to the returned signal, and by means of volume control, a trained rescue operator can literally go straight to the buried reflector once a signal is detected.

• It is a non-powered device meaning that it never needs to be switched on, will never lose signal strength and needs no batteries to function. It is maintenance free and has a virtually unlimited life.

• In total more than 900+ search & rescue organizations in the world endorse it.

The Recco Rescue System is different from an Avalanche Transceiver because its a small band-aid size sticky transponder which is not powered, the reflector can be applied to your boots or helmet, the Recco detector does not contain any antennas and cannot be picked up by an avalanche beacon, the Recco detector has a range of over 200 metres which professional mountain rescue teams can pick up in the case of an avalanche.

Due to it not being a passive device the reflector will not lose signal strength and no battery to malfunction. 

We should not forget Robert Burnett's remarkable twenty two hour survival in the Southern Cairngorms. All victims surely deserve the benefit of the doubt, with  rescuers throwing all resources at an attempt at a a live recovery.

Robert Burnett - 22 hours Buried.  Pic courtesy of Hamish MacInnes

A really good summary of this pretty miraculous survival on the web site 

RECCO Proffessionals

The hand held R9  Recco detector is the size and weight of a hard back book and easy for rescuers to get to the scene and search with.

The underslung Recco SAR pod picture right. Searches 200x200m in a minute and the above Austrian crew hadsjust recovered a victim located with it.

Recco Helicopter based SAR is based at these sites, with more added including a prospective private North of England site soon:

• Switzerland – Zermatt, Sion
• Italy – Aosta, Bozen, Trento
• Austria  – Hohenems, Innsbruck, Linz, Graz
• Norway – Alesund, Hastad, 
• Sweden – Ostersund 
• Canada – Snohomish Helicopter Rescue Team, Snohomish, WA
• United States – Alpine Helicopters, Canmore AB

Live recovery of a victim located by her Recco reflector
 

Glencoe Ski Patrol doing a precautionary combined 457mhz transceiver search and Recco harmonic search on the "Fly Paper". The R9 detector searches both, and at close range can find many other harmonic devices such as mobile phones.

A Slightly Tongue in Cheek Guide to Snow

Snow science seems to be in vogue and nothing wrong with that. But - most folk are not avalanche forecasters just Joe average trying to make good decisions. I like to simplify it when discussing so here’s a white board session based on a  picture taken on an avy course I ran some time ago when the PowerPoint projector failed and I had to cuff it. A good whiteboard session is good as an instructor as you need to know your subject and cant hide behind pictures:

Mountaineers are seldom "searchable"
Above "The Gate"  below Summit Gully Glencoe
Spot Probe Finds x 2 Fatal 😢

• The avalanche forecast is an area forecast. The local risk may be different + or –

• Read the forecast and its nuances, snow pack history and snow profile – and the blog. They have done 80% of the work for you. You decide the rest

• Terrain choice is a big deal, Angle, Aspect and Altitude, Complexity, Commitment and Consequences

• Water becomes ice or something along a continuum

• Snow flakes have branches which break up if transported by the wind

• More wind more break up, denser snow pack i.e Slab

• Graupel is not hail which is a laminate, but it is a ball of softish ice. Graupel are ball bearings with similar effects with new snow laying on top. They eddy into rock features causing local weakness. Rocks can be Islands of safety or a landmine.

• The deeper you go down the snow pack the less cold it gets until at ground level its zero or just above. Mice shrews and invertebrates live there. 

• Water vapour rises through the snowpack.

• Crystals can grow/regrow in cold conditions either on the surface as hoar or within the snowpack as hoar/crystal regrowth.

• Early season shallow snowpacks can be just as lethal as big deep snowpacks as water vapour causes surface hoar which if snowed on become lethal, graupel can be trapped around prominent rocks causing trigger points, or crystal re growth/faceting can occur and get buried. Shallow is just as lethal as deep.

• Avalanche forecasters measure the snow temperature every 10cm. If the temperature is greater than 1c in 10cm going up the snowpack then the snowpack is getting weaker. Less than 1c in 10cm then overtime the snow pack will eventually get stronger, Strong gradients grow facets, weak gradients make rounds.

• In rain, thaw and warmer weather crystals round off sometimes joining to each other

• Wet snow is Water logged snow and can flow like a concrete river down gullies, corries and obvious slide paths. Beware spring thaws or after heavy rain.

• Wind blown slab snow shears or collapses on a layer underneath and just like rice crispie's there's a snap, crackle and pop

• Whump is the sound of air escape from under the slab, the snap.  If it doesn’t pop go buy a lottery ticket as your lucks in.

• Windslab most often requires a trigger. You are the trigger and in the poop!

• Snow pits should be kept simple. The SAIS and other forecasting services in alpine countries do the heavy lifting. Snow pits and profiles are only relevant for the couple of  square meters where you dig. They are good places to take stock, talk and communicate. The data might confirm what you see but also might not. Its just a hole in the snow. The armpit test is fast and repeatable but not definitive. Dig out a small hole and above cut out as deep a column as you can with a ski end, pole or shovel. Pull on it to see if the surface slab is bonded to the underlying snow pack.

• The progression of survival probability such as % survival at a given time is a statistic. You could survive a couple of hours if in the miracle headline survivor group, but more likely dead from hypoxia unless companions dig you out fast. Bear in mind ski patrollers who can get to fully buried victims in alpine resorts fast, give BLS with fast helicopter access and ALS from dedicated SAR Docs taking the victims to specialist centre's and even then victims do not survive to discharge. Your companions are your saviours.

• A shovel is an airway opening device

• If you are not searchable your fucked 

• That's about it really

Snow and Avalanche Safety Equipment from Ortovox

I Sell Ortovox Avalanche Safety Equipment. UK RECCO Representative and Trainer

It’s that time of year again. We anticipate winter and its many false starts before we finally get going on the skins, ice tools or uplift. Backcountry/Side country skiing has grown its market share as folk want to earn their turns or be away exploring. Uplift and ski resorts are the slingshot getting folks high and fast before skinning away to summits or dropping into bowls or gullies. Some stay ski area inbound and some folk go outbound.  A lot of the “side country” skiers are resort skiers who may have acquired few mountain skills and may not be “searchable” (Recco Strip and/or Beacon). Serious backcountry tourers tend to be mountaineers, be more avalanche aware, and will be more likely have the essential three items of shovel, probe, and avalanche beacon, and so be searchable and rescue capable. No matter how you play it, more and more folk are exploring all aspects of the ski areas, not just frontside. With that comes the inevitable consequence of the aspect, angle and precipitation posing a risk to the less mountain aware, less experienced folks who are not avalanche aware and so perhaps more incidents. Be it near misses or unfortunately sad events.

Now is the time to dig out the search tools. Check your avy beacon, fit new batteries and get familiar with it again (use three antenna beacons only – bin the two antenna or old analog). Even consider upgrading older three antenna ones that have had daily seasonal use for more than five years. If you upgrade don’t go too fancy. You can’t go wrong with something like the Ortovox 3+ or "Diract".  Avalanche beacons like all technology evolve. In the last year some of the new beacons coming on the market have much faster signal acquisition and processing. Newer models have much better signal separation, GPS to keep you going forward and the “flag/mark” feature is much more reliable if it’s a multiple burial. This makes locating multiple victims easier. But they still need dug out, and unless you have many hands with shovels then you may be better excavating the first one found fast rather than all of them slow. Personally my take is that unless you have more than four folk with shovels on the surface don’t spread your resources until you have the first located victims face exposed, some of the chest clear and started resuscitation. Some research has shown that airway management with ventilation and if possible, chest compressions should begin immediately, even when the victim is still partially buried. See link to Scandinavian Journal of Trauma Resuscitation and Emergency Medicine paper below.

New avalanche beacons such as the Ortovox “Diract” are now coming with useful features such as voice prompts, re chargeable Li Ion batteries, hardware checking via a phone app and via the app software updates to future proof them. The curse of the “auto revert” from an inactive rescuer during training or during the real deal is now less of a problem with a beacon standby mode prompt when you go back from search to transmit, or if searching when a light sensor on the display gets covered it puts the beacon back to transmit.

Its sensible to have a longer probe if you can fit it in your pack. Most ski specific day rucksack sleeves only take a 240cm probe, although touring rucksacks are bigger. I find a 280cm carbon probe in my day sack a good compromise. MRT and Ski Patrol should have some 3m+ probes for when the companion rescue phase is taken over by rescuers. It used to be assumed that folk buried deeper than the 240cm had a poorer chance of survival. In fact, it’s only poor as it depends how fast they are dug out and with less people and fatigue that remains partially true. Ski patrol, mountain rescue should be able to have lots of diggers available. With strategic digging methods and enough rescuers folks are now getting dug out alive from 4m+. 

Avalanche rescue is also a logistics issue requiring delegation and leadership as well as regular training and skills practice. Realistic scenarios get teams or groups working together and well drilled. If the victim has no beacon transmitting, or Recco reflectors then its avalanche dogs early on scene, or probe searching. Probing the slowest of all methods to find a victim. Probing requires more rescuers and good line discipline. Initially it may be members of the public co-opted (if deemed safe) spot probing while rescuers carry out beacon and Recco sweeps. MRT and SARDA should be on the way ASAP. Survival is best with the “all in” approach where every search method is called in and deployed as soon as possible. Formal probe lines are like herding cats. Fail to practice this and you plan to fail. It’s a neglected area which is why rescuers need to practice.

It remains that the most effective airway opening device is a good shovel in the hands of someone who’s not work shy. A memorable example was local builder Brian MacDermott a member of Lochaber Mountain Rescue who I witnessed shift more snow in a short space of time than 4 other rescuers in a multiple victim event in the Great Gully of Buachaille Etive. We normal folk can achieve similar as a group by employing a conveyor and using a more strategic organised approach to digging. The tool needs to be an alu shovel with a wide blade and extendable handle such as the Ortovox Pro Alu III. It’s also useful if it can convert to a hoe as sometimes those in a conveyor behind the front person are better to be pulling the snow away from the front digger.

While we wait for the snow to arrive there is plenty for us to train and probably not enough time to do it all. But it can be a sociable time and a good mental preparation for a season that’s not just going to be unpredictable for its weather, but also from a snow hungry public with time to make up and perhaps less risk averse. The pieces to be picked up by rescuers.

For all you mountaineers out there. "Be Searchable" if your pushed for money or carrying the full winter climbing kit and no space for more kit then at least consider a couple of RECCO reflectors. £40 that might either save your life, or a rescuers life as they are not exposed for longer than necessary to avalanche risk - and they may actually find you. Several Scottish MRT's and Ski Patrol have Recco R9 detectors as this is part of the standard "all available search tools" immediately deployed to an avalanche scene as per International Alpine Rescue protocols. A Helicopter airborne Recco search capablity is currently under way in the North of England as it can search huge areas very fast as the detector looks down from the sky. Also drone technolgy for deployment is also now possible. If you require any information on RECCO please contact me as I am the UK Trainer and rep.

https://recco.com/global-network/