This sounds kind of cool. The air bag makes you float like a life preserver in the water and prevents you from being buried by the snow. Source
Air Bag Becoming Standard Equipment For NW Skiers
Jessica Robinson | Feb. 20, 2012 5:03 p.m.
The air bag credited with saving a woman from an avalanche at Stevens Pass is starting to become standard equipment for back country skiers in the Northwest. The expert skiers who seek the thrill of more remote areas are no strangers to signs of avalanches.
Rhen Lyden knows the tell-tale signs that an avalanche is about to start.
"You'll see the snow fracture and it looks a lot like broken glass, like shattered glass," Lynden says.
When that happens he's usually able to ski or snowboard over to a safe area, like a ridge top. But that's not always possible. It wasn't for Elyse Saugstad , one of the four back country skiers swept down the mountain at Stevens Pass on Sunday. Three of them died. But Saugstad survived by inflating an air bag.
Lyden demonstrates one at the Ski Shack in Hayden, Idaho, where he's the manager.
"You pull your rip cord here on your strap ..." he says.
CO2 fills the bags and helps the skier slide over the snow instead of sinking into it.
The three skiers who died at Stevens Pass — along with a snowboarder at Snoqualmie — were in what's known as an "out of bounds" area. It's not against the rules to be there. But experts say these back country spots are much more prone to avalanches.
Deadly Washington avalanche highlights airbag
By Doyle Rice, USA TODAY
The weekend avalanche that killed three skiers near Stevens Pass, Wash., was the single-deadliest such accident in three years, but it highlighted a safety device that likely saved the life of a fourth skier caught in the slide.
Three skiers were buried alive in Sunday's avalanche, which occurred outside the boundaries of the Stevens Pass ski resort. Skier Elyse Saugstad, however, had time to deploy her "avalanche airbag backpack" as the onrushing wall of snow struck.
"I believe my partial burial and survival was on account of the inflation of my ABS Avalanche Airbag Backpack," Saugstad said on her website.
These airbags, which John Snook of the Colorado Avalanche Information Center said increasingly are being used by backcountry enthusiasts as their cost decreases, act as a flotation device to keep the victim closer to the top of the avalanche. Airbags cost from about $600 to $1,000.
"However, the airbag doesn't prevent you from getting into an avalanche," Snook said, likening it to a seat belt in a car.
So far this winter season, U.S. avalanches have killed 17 people, all in the western mountains, according to Snook. With three months still to go in the season, the death toll is a bit above average, he said.
In the last 10 winters, an average of 25 people a year died in avalanches in the U.S.
Avalanche victims are almost exclusively winter sports enthusiasts exploring the backcountry — deep snow outside the boundaries of ski resorts. They include snowmobilers, climbers, snowboarders, snowshoers, skiers and hikers, the Utah Avalanche Center reports. Snowmobilers lead the list of fatalities, with twice as many as in any other activity.
"We have so many more users in the backcountry now, when compared to 50 years ago," Snook said. People are driving more powerful snowmobiles or skiing further to access the deeper terrain of the backcountry, where there are no avalanche-mitigation techniques in place, as there are in ski areas.
Since 1950, only about 3% of avalanche deaths have occurred on terrain within ski resorts, the Utah Avalanche Center reports.
Much of the USA has been enjoying a remarkably snow-free winter, with just 30% of the USA covered with snow Monday. This is the lowest percentage in seven years, according to the National Weather Service.
But much of the western mountains, including Washington's Cascades and Olympics, have typically heavy snowfall, reports weather service meteorologist Dennis D'Amico in Seattle.
"The snowpack is pretty healthy," D'Amico said, noting that in spots such as Stevens Pass, the snowpack is just over 8 feet, near average for this time of year.
Survivor: Deadly avalanche a 'horror story'
By PHUONG LE, Associated Press
SEATTLE (AP) — The expert skiers wasted no time after an avalanche hit and swept their friends down a steep slope in Washington state. They immediately turned on their emergency beacons and began searching for signs of life.
Powder Magazine senior editor John Stifter, who witnessed the slide that killed three of his skiing companions Sunday, said one person survived by bear-hugging a tree and holding on as the snow barreled over him. Another skier who was caught in the slide was saved when she deployed an air bag designed to keep her afloat.
"It's an absolute horror story," Stifter said Monday.
The chances of surviving an avalanche once it has you in its grips are slim, experts say.
"The snow doesn't really care how experienced you are. It's not keeping track of experience level," said Mark Moore, an avalanche meteorologist and director of the Northwest Weather and Avalanche Center, which warned of extreme avalanche danger Tuesday. "Once you're in an avalanche, it has you at its mercy."
Stifter identified the victims as Jim Jack, a well-known head judge for the Freeskiing World Tour; Stevens Pass marketing director Chris Rudolph; and Johnny Brenan, a Leavenworth contractor.
The Freeskiing World Tour and Utah's Snowbird Ski and Summer Resort had scheduled a gathering at the resort Monday afternoon to remember Jack, whom Stifter described as generous, smart and influential in the ski industry.
The skiers were equipped with safety devices and kept track of each other as they strayed beyond the boundaries of the popular Stevens Pass Ski resort, about 90 miles northeast of Seattle. But the precautions still didn't save some from getting trapped, highlighting the risks of backcountry activity during a season of heightened avalanche dangers in the West.
Sunday's avalanche was relatively large, Moore said. The Northwest Weather and Avalanche Center rate Sunday's avalanche danger as considerable to high. Heavy snow had fallen in the Cascades on Saturday with widespread avalanches and strong winds, all red flags, Moore said.
"Most of our avalanches here are storm-related, so we get most of our avalanche activity during or immediately after a storm," Moore said. "It's very sad to have accidents like this happen. No matter how good the snow is, you still have to be objective about risk," he added.
Statistics show that 93 percent of avalanche victims can be recovered alive if dug out within 15 minutes, but survival rates drop quickly as time passes, according to the Utah Avalanche Center. After 45 minutes, only 20 to 30 percent of victims are alive. After two hours, few survive. People die because their carbon dioxide builds up in the snow around their mouth and they quickly die from carbon dioxide poisoning.
The Tunnel Creek canyon — where a snowboarder died in an avalanche last year — is outside the boundaries of Stevens Pass ski resort, but the area can be accessed by taking one of the resort's lifts to the top and hiking a short distance. The area is not controlled for avalanches.
Stifter said he and Jack skied in the resort until about 11:15 a.m. Sunday when they met up with Rudolph. Stifter was in Washington state on an assignment, but this "was just a fun run with friends."
He said he read the avalanche report that morning and knew avalanche dangers were considerable. He and others talked about it and determined they could ski it safely, he said. Jack and Rudolph had both skied the area countless times, he said.
Three of the 15 in the initial group peeled off and went a different way. Twelve others headed down, pairing up and skiing one by one, leapfrogging each other.
Each carried shovels and avalanche probes and wore avalanche beacons, a standard rescue device that allows rescuers to locate the signal of a victim if buried.
Stifter watched as Jack made three turns, and then he saw a pocket of snow pop out. "Holy smokes! This is huge," Stifter recalled, when they realized how huge the avalanche was.
"We immediately pulled out our transceivers, designated a leader and spaced out 30 feet, zig-zagging all the way down," hoping to pick up their friends' signals, Stifter said.
Eventually, they picked up on the first signal and began digging furiously. They found Rudolph face down. Stifter performed CPR for about 30 minutes to no avail. Another group worked on digging out Brenan and Jack.
Professional skier Elyse Saugstad told NBC's "Today" show she's convinced the air bag she deployed immediately — which she carried in a backpack and deployed with a lever by her chest — saved her life.
"It's lifting you kind of up above the avalanche," Saugstad said Monday. "It's not like you're taking an inner tube ride down some snowy field. ... It feels like you're in a washing machine."
Only Saugstad had an air bag, Stifter said. Air bags range from about $600 to $1,000. They have been widely used in Europe with reports of high survival rates, but they have become popular in the U.S. only recently.
An avalanche beacon, shovel and probe are among the mandatory rescue items for those heading into the backcountry, but experts say it's best to avoid avalanches entirely.
"The truth is, if you have to use your beacon, it means you've made a big mistake," said Benj Wadsworth, executive director of the Friends of the Northwest Weather and Avalanche Center, a nonprofit that works with the center to promote avalanche education and safety. "The focus of avalanche education is to keep you out of avalanches in the first place."
Adds Moore: "There are all of these technological things that will help us, but they're not a talisman that you can wave at the snowpack. You can't wave your beacon or your air bag at the snowpack. It's not going to make you safe. It's going to help you when get in trouble."
Finding a Crowd-Free Tahoe: Airbag packs give you a shot, when avalanches might not
By Nick Miley
nmiley@tahoedailytribune.com
Avalanche airbag packs have hit the mainstream with six manufactures producing a variety of products.
Despite the high price of around $1,000, the demand for this product has grown due to the drastic increase in avalanche survival rates that these packs facilitate. Airbag packs are now readily available to the public at many local outdoor suppliers catering to the skiing, riding and snowmobile communities.
As the number of people leaving the confines and safety of ski resorts has increased over the years, the availability of mountain skills education and safety equipment has increased as well. Lake Tahoe Community College offers several backcountry skills and avalanche safety courses, as do local guide services such as Expedition Kirk wood and Alpine Skills Interna tional.
Furthermore, there are few ski shops in the Tahoe area that do not offer at least the basic gear to safely access the backcountry in winter.
Regardless of these assets, avalanches remain a chief concern for many traveling in the backcountry in winter. Addressing this issue in a scientific manner has been the fo cus of several safety-gear manufacturers.
ABS has led the industry in research and development of airbags and has also spearheaded the experimentation that has illustrated that these devices are the most reliable tool in the snow enthusiasts' avalanche survival kit. ABS' systematic analysis of all available avalanche victims statistics has shown a 97 percent survival rate for those who have deployed the airbag in a slide; 3 percent did not survive. Compare that number to the 25 percent mor tality rate of victims not wearing airbag packs in a slide and the benefits of this system become clear.
Addressing the issue of cost, John Shearer of Sierra Mountain Sports, a snowmobile shop in South Lake Tahoe, said: “It's your life on the line out there. I think that it's worth the money.”
These packs have been particularly popular with sledders due to the high risk of avalanche mortality in their particular sport.
For four decades, transceivers, probes, shovels and a keen sense of snow stability have been the primary means of mitigating the dangers of being caught in an avalanche. However, over the last 10 years companies like ABS have been playing around with the physics of inverse segregation, fine tuning techniques that increase an avalanche victim's volume to ex ploit the benefits of this phenomenon.
Often referred to as the “mixed-nut theory” by educators in the field of snow-study, the principle of inverse segregation simply de scribes the predictable behavior of particles in a laminar flow, which organize themselves by size. Those particles with the greatest volume will rise to or remain on the surface. Conversely, the smaller ones will sink. One sees this principle at work when shaking-up a jar of mixed nuts: the bigger nuts are regularly on the top of the container.
Unfortunately, humans are relatively dense objects and this reality leaves too many avalanche victims on the wrong side of a settled snow slide — i.e., at the bottom. What the airbags do is to simply increase a victim's volume, thus decreasing their density, by securing a bag or bags filled with air to the body.
As one can imagine, it would be quite cumbersome for an athlete to be skiing with a balloon strapped to his or her backpack. Accord ing ly, the air for the balloon is stored in a high-pressure canister inside the pack. The air is released into the bag by a pull-cord triggered by the victim in an active slide. The expansion happens rapidly, within three to five seconds.
“It's important that you practice (deploying) the pack just like you would with a beacon; just so you're used to it, and know how it works,” Shearer said.
As these packs have become more affordable, lighter and less bulky, their popularity has grown. Many heli and cat-skiing operations now rent them to their cli ents. Moreover, they are now being worn by backcountry skiers, riders and snowmobilers pushing out into the field during or soon after a storm. The question remains wheth er this equipment will en courage people to engage in more risky behavior in the backcountry. After all, surviving a slide does not mean that one left it un scathed. Despite the clear benefits of these amazing products, avalanches are still incredibly dangerous, requiring diligence and training to avoid and address in an effective manner.
How to survive an avalanche? Spit, expert says
By Rene Lynch
February 21, 2012, 5:00 a.m.
Spit could mean the difference between life and death if you are ever caught in an avalanche, an expert says.
Avalanches are rare -- but deadly. Every second is critical to survival, as is keeping calm in the face of calamity. But that's not easy to do in the face of a terrifying, blinding slide that has the ability to blanket victims in snow and ultimately smother them.
After of a weekend avalanche that claimed the lives of three skiers in Washington state, we asked John Snook, avalanche forecaster for the Colorado Avalanche Information Center, what you should do if you find yourself facing one.
At the first sign of an avalanche, he suggests thrashing around as if your life depends upon it -- because it does. Thrashing, or "swimming," can help you stay atop the slide and the snow, making survival more likely, he said Monday.
If you are being enveloped by snow, do your best to keep one arm straight above your head. This serves two purposes. It can help you figure out up from down, which is not always possible if you've been tossed around and become disoriented, Snook told The Times.
And, if you're lucky, your gloved hand could be sticking up above the snow to help rescuers find you.
With your other hand, Snook said, try your best to create an air pocket in front of your face before the snow becomes too compacted. People buried in avalanches smother, so an air pocket could provide you with enough air to survive until help arrives, he said.
An air pocket can also make room for this trick: If you're stuck in the snow and you can't tell up from down, spit. Gravity will tell you which direction to move -- assuming that you can move.
The best way to avoid an avalanche is to take precautions from the get-go. "Every mountain in the West has a local avalanche center," he said. Every snow adventurer should be versed in the weather forecast, the snowpack conditions and the avalanche danger rating before venturing out for the day.
Consult the forecast, research the area that you're planning to traverse and, most important, don't allow skiers' "powder fever" to overrule your better judgment, he said.
When traveling in avalanche-prone areas, don't move together as a pack. Each skier or snowboarder should navigate the stretch ahead alone. That way, if disaster strikes, survivors can alert rescuers to the victim's whereabouts.
Everyone trekking into the snowy wilderness -- snowboarders, skiers, snowmobilers -- should be carrying an avalanche survival kit containing a snow shovel, a beacon that is worn on the body, and a probe. High-tech probes work hand-in-hand with the beacon to locate a victim and can even poke air holes in the snow to help victims breathe until they can be rescued.
"The whole idea is to just buy yourself some time until help can arrive," he said.
A relatively new device, a flotation air bag, can be deployed in the case of an avalanche. It's being credited with saving the life of one of the skiers, Elyse Staugstad, who was also caught in Sunday's deadly slide.
Snook said he is a fan of the flotation air bag. But, he said, "We fear it will give people a false sense of security."
Snook also suggests that adventurers understand the basics of avalanches, and use such information for their safety. For example, avalanches cannot occur on slopes that are less than 25 to 30 degrees. When plotting out routes, such knowledge can add an extra cushion of safety so that outdoors lovers can focus on safely getting to their destination instead of courting danger along the way.
Also, adventurers should know this counterintuitive fact: Less snow often means greater danger.
Colorado, for example, has experienced a low-snow year. Those early layers of snow can make for a weak foundation. Ideally, the next layers of snow create heavier "slabs" that make for a solid layer. But if snow is light, the region can be more prone to slabs slipping and sliding and cracking above the poor foundation.
"It's like trying to build a house with a deck of cards. Eventually that weak foundation fails," Snook said. "It's been particularly hazardous this year in Colorado. Probably the most dangerous snowpack we've had in 30 years."
Typically, the people killed in avalanches are skiers or snowboarders. But snowmobilers are catching up, he said, because the machines are more powerful and durable than ever, enabling riders to go farther into the backwoods and higher on slopes.
Snook said Sunday's avalanche especially hit home with him. He lost a friend to an avalanche last Thursday near Gibbs Creek and Wolf Creek Pass in Colorado. "I'm trying to honor my friend by hopefully helping others," he said.
So far, 17 people have died in avalanches this snow season. Last year, 36 people died in avalanches, according to the Colorado Avalanche information Center.