A Mountain Day, from Sunrise to Sunset

Sunrise, sunset, sunrise, sunset,

Swiftly, fly the years,

One season following another,

Laden with happiness and tears

Jerry Brock

The small dark hours of an early January morning. Leaning over carefully so as not to awaken Fiona, I pull back a curtain, just a chink, and I see bright twinkling stars and hoar frost over cars parked outside. My night has been restless. Fear and anxiety about what I might do with this day. Then at times a light slumber and calm, as I think, no, I will just have an easy day at home.

Mind games. Somewhere deep I had already decided what I was going to do. But my gremlins were scaring me out of it. My human put the chimp back in its place when I pulled back the curtain and saw the stars and frost as I could already feel the mountains calling. Anxiety for survival, and taking risks to live life fully. The solo climber’s paradox.

Sliding out of warmth and safety, creeping quietly down to hastily eat something with a coffee. A prepacked rucksack. Planning or precognition? Had I subconsciously decided what my plan was? But to sleep perhaps I needed to know I wasn’t going to follow through.

A note is left. “Gone up Stob Corrie. Just some easy climbs. Back midafternoon. Parking at Pipers Layby.”

The Pipers

Our car is frosted, but the newspaper covering the screen comes off clean. In some fateful irony the inside page was covered in details of a mountain tragedy a week before, where a roped party had fallen. Tom Patey the ardent soloist had a definition of a roped party as being two people falling together. A quick key turn to start the car, reverse out, and a short blind drive away from the house to do a proper scrape and defrost, then I am on my way up the glen. It’s bitterly cold, and sunrise is still a couple of hours away. Perfect.

The short drop down from the car park to the bridge begins to warm my legs, ready for the toil ahead. That long grind up, with the East face of Aonach Dubh and memories of lazy warm days on easy classic climbs made by an earlier pioneering generation. And some harder climbs where more boldness was required. At my back, the Aonach Eagach and its siren call in winter, plastered in snow and inviting me to a mini alpine adventure. Tempting, but not the day plan on the note I left of where I am going. I will climb some routes. I will decide which ones, if any when in the Corrie.

Across the burn and a last slog up into the Corrie by following the burn outline in the glow of a headtorch, watching for the buried lochans. You could be forgiven for thinking you were on an alpine adventure where a crevasse might eat you up, but in this case soak you and kill you from hypothermia. Into the Corrie proper as the light changes subtly from night to not quite day. I see Boomerang gully just catching some light at its top. Crampons on, axe in hand I plodded up in soft snow for a bit then hit perfect snow ice in the gully. I love moving fast using my fitness which is hard earned from days cutting trees, running, and racing my road bike. The former to earn a living, the latter purely for getting fit for moving fast on days like these. Also, for stamina, as when my climbing day ends, my rescue night might sadly begin when a call comes to get the team out. It’s a fine line between warmed up and fucked.

I go up Boomerang fast, reaching a very short snow ice steepening, then onto a shoulder, reaching it as the sunrise hits me. Everything turns dark orange. I stop and look around at the now lit up summits and take in this atom of delight. I could be summiting Everest, Denali or any famous giant, but I don’t need to think that way, because it’s not about imagining greater ranges. It’s pure delight that I live here, this is home, and this is sublime. It’s more than enough for me. Some of the time.

I plod up to the summit and take in the views, then drop down to the top of Broad gully then down into the still cold and brightening Corrie. I can see other headtorches on the way up the path now, and it’s getting lighter. Before more folk arrive and get on the popular climbs I decide Forked gully right hand should be next, and on good snow ice quickly ascend through the ice pitch onto the ridge then back climb down the left fork until I come across the trough carved out by climbers traversing below the climbs on the previous days. I then go up into Twisting gully and find it has good ice not hacked to bits by other ascents, so I quickly go up and across its steeper bit, then crampon up to the cornice which has a slot cut in it. I’m back on the ridge again and the air is clear and the light bright. I can see my house still frozen in the village fridge as we get no winter sun, and the house will now be stirring with breakfast being made. It’s a reflective moment. Am I selfish up here on my own?  Yet this is who I am. That brings responsibility too. Don’t fuck up being the main thought.

Coire nan Lochan

Pondering this, I go down the ridge to the top of NC gully and back climb down, then traverse across to Central Buttress, then across into SC gully. I climb a long steep strip of snow ice on bomber axe placements, move across the ice pitch onto a ramp, then climb up into the narrow steep confines of the upper gully. Steep calf aching cramponing to just below the gully rim where there is a cornice. Standing below this pondering the best way, with a big death drop below focuses all the chimps in my paradox. I decided to traverse left up to an easing angle where South Central Buttress joins and where there is a smaller cornice. Both axes planted shaft first, over the top with a heave I am up and safe.

I sit on a rock and ponder for a bit. I have the physical energy for one more climb, but I don’t have my head in the game anymore. All the chimps have been silenced. I have quietude.  I think - finish early and get home to the family.  I make my way down the NW ridge into the Corrie and meet many people whose climbing day is just about to start as my one ends. They will have a good day and good sport as the routes are at the top of their guidebook grade not banked out by very much snow yet.

Central Gully IV4 ScRBeith

Winter climbing is a funny old game. It’s tough but rewarding, and unforgiving if you don’t learn to heed what the mountains in your mind and in front of you are telling you. “Discretion is the better part of valour” is a truth. Sometimes like this day, the mountains let you in, other days they spit you out. Wising up to this can give a lifetime of adventure or a lifetime of hurts. There is nothing quite like it.

Down home to a busy household of young children, warmth and safety. Most of the afternoon still ahead and time for walk with the family before the early dusk and winter darkness sets in. On a frozen loch snow angels are made in the hoar frost, and another atom of delight as I observe family happiness while also still feeling the satisfaction of feeding the climbing rat that some of us are afflicted with. Until the Rat moves to a different home. Thats rare. 

Rebekah Gunn

Just as the sun sets and darkness arrives, and I feel relaxed, the radio goes, it’s the team leader calling us out to a fallen climber on Stob Coire nam Beith somewhere in the region of NW or Summit gullies. Pre mobile phone coverage in the glen, the fallen climbers friend had to run all the way down the steep path to the Elliots cottage to get help. I quickly get ready, grab my kit and go across to the A82 where another team member stops and gives me a lift. Others pass and collect our rescue van from Hamish MacInnes’s house at Achnacon. We get to the Elliots where I meet the fellow who has come down to get help. His friend has a badly broken ankle from having fallen with crampons on, and as they dug in broke his ankle and dislocated it. The van arrives and the police with it. It seems a helicopter is due in 55m. As its not life-threatening folk decide to wait for a lift up. I’m amped up, so grab a medical gas bottle and splint and take off up the path into the Corrie. Saving a bit of energy earlier in the day, and after lots of food when home I felt quite good. Tired, but it is amazing how long you can sustain an aerobic threshold and reasonable pace when trained. Its quite a mindful and satisfying feeling as your body burns fat for energy. Probably a remnant of our hunter gatherer past from chasing game across savanah for days.

I made it to the casualty at the foot of the first ice pitch in NW gully in about 55m just as the helicopter arrived below at the base. I gave the casualty some pain relief gas, then re located the ankle with a satisfying clunk, straightened out the leg, and put on a good splint. I had direct radio contact with the team and helicopter. The helicopter flew straight up, dropped down the winchman who double stopped the casualty up and away to the Belford Hospital Fort William. Then it was a slow tired walk back down to the base and home again. Two hours start to finish, home in time for tea with the family.

I later fell asleep in a chair until two in the morning. Tired

Sunset over the Cullin

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