Avalanche Safety and Rescue Course
As I start my new journey with Destination Winter - Coaching and Guiding, I was really pleased when the team at Arc’teryx St.Anton asked me to put together an Avalanche Safety & Rescue Training day. We decided to make it a women’s only course and had a good response to the social media posts that went out and of course, in such a small mountain village, also by word of mouth!
I have worked before with the Arc’teryx St.Anton team over the years. Including 2 sessions and adventures on Lake Verwall and on the River Inn in Summer with Kayak School Arlberg and so I was really looking forward to sharing my knowledge from the past 20 years as a Ski and Snowboard Instructor and Guide.
Avalanche Theory
In the morning we met up at Piltriquitron Lodge. Not just for coffee and tea, but to sit down, take our time and go through the avalanche safety bulletin that is sent out everyday in Winter from Land Tirol.
Firstly explaining the symbols for avalanche problems that are given in the avalanche bulletin plus the 10 different danger patterns that can occur throughout the winter ski season. I also wanted to relate what was being written in the avalanche bulletin to where we actually ski and ride in the resort of St.Anton am Arlberg.
Finally we went through what I carry in my rucksack when skiing or snowboarding off-piste, including some items that I have learnt or used over the years which can help, be it in an emergency, a broken piece of equipment or keeping you warm if the weather or conditions change.
Understanding Terrain in relation to Avalanche Conditions
After finishing our theory at Piltriquitron, we headed up the Galzig Gondola and for a cruise around the 3 pistes that were open. As the snow conditions were quite poor, we could not head off-piste and instead looked at different areas where we would usually ride and talk about which way the slopes faced, how steep they are and of course understanding the natural hazards involved in each area be it natural (such as bowls, gullies, concave or convex slopes) and man made problems such as people dropping in above you, setting safety meeting points and avoiding the crowds!
On Snow Avalanche Theory
With a little more knowledge about the most popular off-piste areas we cruised over to a nice place in the sunshine, away from the crowds just off the piste, to where we started our on snow part of the days course.
Firstly I went through the theory and use of the avalanche beacon, drawing the signal the beacon makes in the snow so that everyone could not only see how the signal would transmit but also how the avalanche beacons will receive the signal and the route it would take you to find the buried person.
We started a walk through, talk through on the main search: imagining to arrive at an avalanche, where you could not receive a signal and so we learnt how to find the first signal be it as an individual or as a group. Making note and talking about what to do and not to do on an avalanche area, plus things to recognise or even check such as a pole sticking out of the snow, a ski or even a bit of the body!
After finally receiving the signal, marking the spot we continued with the main search until it came down to the nitty, gritty part!
Again, I did a walk through, talk through in Fine searching: keeping the avalanche beacon close to the snow, always searching and holding it so that we never turn our avalanche beacon until we narrow it down to a small area where the beacon was buried. We then split up into 2 groups and with the help of Steve we did some individual searches with one of the guides keeping a close eye on the search and techniques that were used.
Avalanche Rescue Techniques and Practices
A short break for some tea and coffee plus a few sugary snacks we followed up on the Main and Fine avalanche searches with feedback from everyone and some tips and tricks to not only make the search fast but also to make sure it could be done under the realtime stress that would happen in that situation!
The final part of the day was all about probing and digging a victim out of an avalanche. When probing it can be quite difficult to know what exactly you have found. We had a mound of snow right there, dug out a hole so I could place things like a rucksack, a rock and even Steve in there. Each person individually went up to the mound with their probe and started probing through the snow to get a feeling. It did not take long to realise the difference between a rock, rucksack or Steve’s thigh and while one was practicing the others could see from their position exactly what the probe had encountered.
We now moved on to digging out a victim and how to shovel snow efficiently and effectively. With a few techniques shown whether as an individual or as a team the girls got down to some serious physical digging and shovelling. If anyone was feeling a little cold by the afternoon, this had now completely changed with all the effort of proper dynamic shovelling in avalanche terrain! Again with feedback, tips and advice coming from myself and Steve we finished the course with a ski and board down to the village of St.Anton.
Thank you to everyone who took part, to Arc’teryx St.Anton for sponsoring the event and the feedback I received that evening and following day was really appreciated. A big thank you of course goes to Steve for his help and taking some great photos.
I already look forward to more events throughout the Winter here in St.Anton am Arlberg.
My next event and course will be a days Introduction to Ski Touring. Going through equipment, efficient skinning up, solid and easy kick turns plus reading and understanding the terrain both when skinning up and skiing or snowboarding down. Please keep an eye on my website, social media posts from Destination Winter - Coaching and Guiding plus Arc’teryx St.Anton and of course keep those ears open in the village as the news of the event and course will also be spread by word of mouth!
Stay safe in the mountains
Ute
