After you pull the avi airbag trigger...a new game plan?

Didn't really feel like drinking, after all.

Anyway, I guess my final conclusion from my experience is to practice with your equipment. I may have consciously decided to go for the rip cord but it was an awkward motion toward an object I didn't really have good spacial awareness of (especially in the washing machine), having never even played with the ripcord before. The avalung, which I have been playing with for years, went in quite naturally.

IMHO, never having had the experience of being in a slide, I would definitely ditch the skis and poles. Although, I feel like that might be a foregone conclusion in most cases. Besides, if the skis are still clamped to your feet after getting caught they're probably on there pretty tight & taking them off isn't going to be a trivial matter! Regardless, there are plenty of arguments I can come up with as to why skis-on is probably a bad idea; Just thinking about the way the airbag works, it seems pretty clear that skis/poles will act in resistance the effects of granular convection (which is why you float) both directly (in a fluid-dynamics sense) and indirectly, through an increased chance of getting caught up in "strainers" under the surface. That's all in addition to the risk presented by tumbling around with extra-long rigid appendages that can cause blunt trauma and act as force-multipliers (levers) on your biological joints.

Swimming? What's the point if you've got an airbag? The effect of flailing your arms and draining all of your energy is a drop in the bucket compared to the balloon on your back. Save your energy to maintain awareness so that you can avoid obstacles and act quickly and efficiently once the movement starts to slow. That way you'll be prepared to clear an air pocket, make sure there are visible indicators of your location above the surface to aid in rescue, dig yourself out, rescue your friends, etc...

It seems to me that it would be like taking a bad swim an a particularly nasty rapid; Go with the flow, there's nothing more draining and futile than trying to fight the physics of mother nature. It's all a waste if you don't leave yourself any for the hike out.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Summit

The ultimate survival strategy is to not get caught in an avalanche. Since the dawn of skiing and forever more until we have escape rockets (or speed wings): ALWAYS TRY TO SKI OUT AT A 45 DEGREE ANGLE!

ONCE CAUGHT:

The old school method: YELL and ditch everything and try to swim as hard as possible. If you feel the avalanche slowing down, then protect your airway and stick up a hand.

The debate of the late 2000s was whether to swim or simply protect your airway. Statistical analysis certainly shows that those who are unburied quickly dead and unrevivable usually had airways full of snow or no air pocket. Respected avalanche researcher, instructor, patroller, and rescuer Dale Atkins discovered through research that:
1. Most avalanche victims reported inability to feel any progress from swimming
2. By the time people stopped their fruitless swimming because they felt the avalanche slow, it was already too late to make an air pocket.
Dale wrote about this and much more about the dynamnics of an avalanche in motion (and how it explains points 1 & 2) here: http://www.americanavalancheassociat...25_4_LoRes.pdf (Pages 9-11, my unrelated article is on Page 6)

Dale advocates: Protecting your airway as the number one priority:
1. Yell and grab your pack strap with one arm putting your elbow over your face.
2. Put your other arm up in the air.
3. Whitewater swim: feet downhill to protect your head and torso from obstacles.

When presenting this position at CSAW 2006, I asked Dale what about an Avalung user? He said that changes the game some.

With the advent of the Avalung, if you use it properly by skiing with it in, the airway issue is solved. Respected Alaskan guide Theo Meiners advocated using an avalung at all times and utilizing a multistep method of swimming depending where you are in the slide based on the dynamics described in Dale's article above.
http://www.fsavalanche.org/NAC/techP...eltMeiners.pdf

Attachment 108279

While presenting this method at CSAW 2009, Theo pointed out that these methods were impossible if a victim was fighting to keep the snow out of their mouth and pointed out the importance of an Avalung. He was asked how best to practice these techniques. Theo replied, "swim a lot of Class V whitewater."

SO WHAT ABOUT THE AIRBAG USER?
This is an excellent question. I think that an airbag user should try to ski out like everyone else, yelling and pulling the airbag at the first hint of a slide. If caught, deploy the airbag if not done already, then use Dale's method because using Theo's methods are hard for the unpracticed even if you don't have the added complication of a ginormous airbag. The airbag will do the job of preventing burial and thus giving a surface clue; the victim should be focused on keeping their airway open, preserving an air pocket, and putting feet downhill for extra protection.

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Great stuff Summit. This would fly in the face of my own theory that speed is your friend. Getting off the slab of slide itself with tons of speed would also potentially put you at the front of the slide, the most dangerouse part with the subducting etc. If you going slower, you could potentially fall back into the tail end, where speeds and forces seem to be slower.

Anythoughts on this?

We also found that the avy air bags remain out on the leading edge of the avalanche if they are hit by a moving slide. If the air bags are placed in the starting zone and start moving at the same time as the avalanche it's a slightly different story, and usually the air bags remain in the forward 1/4 of the avalanche, but not out front. -WARI

That is pretty much what occurs when a whitewater kayaker gets pummeled by a large ocean wave when the boater&boat wipe out on the green water vs. on the whitewash or in the whitewash (having the wave break over them.)

Thinking about how to deal with the shit ahead of time helps.

IME... of course.

(disclaimer: I have yet to be caught in a snow avalanche.)