What did you do inside your avalanche?

[WARY]

We are looking for descriptions of what people did once they were involved in an avalanche. We are designing an avalanche airbag system and we would like to hear some first person accounts of what people experienced and what actions they took inside the avalanche.

How much did you use your arms and legs? Did you have time to do anything at all? How was your visibility, could you see anything at all? How long did it take the slide to engulf you? How long do you think the avalanche lasted? Did you lose your gear? Where you completely buried or partially or even fully exposed? How trapped where you after the slide? What was the position of your body during and after the avalanche? Etc, etc ....

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

[WARY]

Here's a reply from a sledder...

"I was in a small but possibly deadly avy a few years back. I shot up a hill (on a snowmobile) and started side hilling. I was coming up to a wall of trees and was looking down to see where was a good spot to come down. That’s when I saw the snow pucker up. I tried full throttle to get to the trees but the moving snow was pulling my sled out from under me. I tried to jump and grab a tree but all I felt was the branches sliding through my hands and then it was lights out. Not unconscious but under the snow, and my first thought was “so this is how it happens”. Then I realized how fast it was carrying me down the hill and thought if I hit a tree it was going to bust me up so I pulled my self into a ball and then I wondered if “that swimming thing” works and started thrashing like crazy. When I came to a stop I was buried up to my chest facing down hill. I was completely out of breath and glad to see the light of day. Some guys came up and helped get me out. I just sat there and gathered my wits and thought about what just happened.

Looking down the hill my sled was about 60 yards away and mostly buried with the hood busted up in about three pieces. It took a bit to get it out as the snow had set up hard in nothing flat.

One person saw the whole thing happen. I have thought about it many times and still do. This was not a huge avy but plenty to kill a man easily. I feel I was pretty lucky that day."

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[WARY]

Here's another reply froma snowmobiler.

"Around 2000 feet on Hash Mountain, Montana, I got stuck and was just pulling on my ski to turn around when the snow slid out around my cat (Arctic Cat snowmobile). I thought, "Oh yeah, that will help me out!..." Then the snow wave hit me in the back. It was at least a 200 yard break about 3-4' deep at the top. I was slammed forward and started swimming like crazy. Pretty soon, I surfaced and yelled to my buds that I had a beacon. There was only one 5" inch diameter tree on the slope, and I was swimming right behind my Summit (snowmobile), getting glimpses of it thrashing around, hitting the only tree and I thought "Better stop swimming so I don't get tangled up with THAT!". I stopped swimming and avoided hitting the tree with my shoulder, but it was a BAD MOVE, it felt like I dive bombed, along with getting covered with another wave of snow around the same time. I was yelling every time I broke free and saw sky. I think I was covered by four waves; hard to say for sure. When I started to get close to the bottom, I felt it starting to slow down, and remember thinking "Oh great, NOW I'm dead; what's my family going to do?". I swam (or crawled- I was BEAT) for all I was worth, and when it stopped, it spit my upper body to the surface, so I was able to dig my legs out.
At this point, I thought it was over until I saw everyone running to the other side of the hill and remembered the guy on the Exciter (snowmobile) who was stuck on the mountain when I took a stab at the same hill yep, I was STUPID.


It was a terrible feeling thinking I had just killed a guy by climbing/triggering the slide while he was stuck on the same hill.

Sorry for the long read; just hits me a little hard thinking about it."

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[WARY]

Another one from the sled crowd.

"I was in an avalanche on New Years Day. The snow was deep! The hill was steep! I was not aware of the avalanche conditions at the time so I wasn’t really thinking about it. Anyhow I was pulling this hill that no one had touched, I thought I would go over the top but my sled was not working so good that day so I had to buttonhook it and send it down the hill without me. Just as I turned around to look up the hill at where I had whipped my sled around a 3 to 4 foot slab of snow came down and buried me instantly. I did not think to swim, I couldn’t really move a whole lot. It was pitch black, all I could feel was the snow moving around me, I knew that I was right side up and that I was moving very quickly. All that I could think to do was try and put one of my arms up and hopefully have something sticking out of the snow. When I did finally come to a stop I could wiggle my fingers as they were not buried however the rest of me was. Luckily one of the guys in my group saw my hand and quickly came over and dug me out, I was not that far under the snow so it did not take them long to get me out.

None of my gear had been ripped off, not even my helmet which was not buckled….the snow was very soft I was not injured, just a little shaken up!
Anyways hope this helps..

p.s. i was not wearing my ABS because I’m stupid!!!...if I were though I think I probably would have had time to pull the trigger."

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[adam]

Heh, all replies from sledneckers.

[neck beard]

I was snowboarding and so gave up any thought of 'swimming'. I did what I do when I wipe-out surfing: covered my head with my arms, roll in a semi-ball and go with the flow. I then made an air pocket as I came to a slow standstill and things started to get tight around my body. This was wasted as I promptly started moving again... but luckily ended up on the surface once I stopped for the second time.

It was a size 2 slide - but with no terrain traps in the gentle convex run out and the slab was quite thin at 30cm. It just flowed for a long way. Had I been on skis I think I could have 'swum' to keep myself on top most of the time. My snowboard was like a pair of cement boots... bolted together. Forget it.

I now try to ski backcountry more than snowboard.

[WARY]

Scary Hohes, sounds like the board was definately a detriment....


Here is another one from the snowmobile crowd. In it he talks about having his shovel and other gear in his Boss seat. A Boss seat is a customized snowmobile seat (made in Utah) that many serious sledders replace their factory snowmobile seat with. The Boss seat has compartments for storage.



"I was in a avy in Cooke City a few years ago. A friend was stuck on a small hill that was not steep and had a fair amount of trees on it. I went up to help him and set off a slide. I would not have thought in a million years that hill would have slid. I slid down maybe 200 ft and was only buried 1 ft under. I was able to get myself out. As I looked around I didn't see my friend. I turned my beacon (sos model) to search and started to try to find him. I would get a signal then nothing over and over. Another person from our group came up with his beacon (beartracker) and located him very quickly. I probed where he said to and hit him in two tries. We dug him out, he was 5ft under the snow for 15 min and was out when we got to him. We did cpr and he came to and we finished getting him out.

As for the question about a air bag being helpful. In this instance I don't think it would have helped because at first I didn't even realize I was in a avy. I thought I had just rolled my sled. I hung on to the sled for about half the way down until it was ripped from my hands. It was over extremely quick, maybe 5 sec and I am only speaking about ME but I would not have had the right frame of mind to pull the rip-cord in time I think.

Things I learned that day,
#1 NEVER go help someone on ANY hill...The hill I went up was so tame but almost killed us with a 4ft deep slide.
#2 Buy the best beacon you can, the cheap sos model I had almost cost my friend his life. If the other person was not there I would not have found him quick enough. Your gear is not for YOU, it is for your friends you ride with.
#3 Have your gear in a pack on you. I had my shovel and probe in my boss seat (customized snowmobile seat with compartments) and had to look for them for a minute because the seat was ripped from my sled. Even if it had stayed on the sled I still would have had to dig it out by hand to get the gear.
#4 It happened so quickly I had no time to think. At first I thought I just turned out wrong and rolled the sled, but then realized the whole hill was moving downhill with me.

To this day I think about that day every time I ride and what a idiot I was. I almost cost a friend his life AND put others at risk too. Unfortunately we have to make mistakes to learn in life sometimes."


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[WARY]

Yet another story from a biler......

"So I was playing, climbing through some small trees. Trees got tight and I ran out of room so decided to park it and look for a path back down. I'm pulling on the ski looking down and the snow starts folding up around me. Look up hill, hmmm, wall of snow. Turn back facing downhill and brace for the blast. Whump, here we go. Tried to swim, got maybe 4 strokes in and the weight of the snow pinned me down. My head was still above and to my amazement, there were some sleds down at the bottom. So I yell hoping they will hear me, "keep an eye on me!"

Snow was really heavy, bent me over backwards so hard, thought my back was surely broken. Slammed a few small trees too, ouch, but my head was still above so I was kinda happy about things.

As I got towards the bottom, I started slowing down, then stopped. The snow kept coming down on top of me burying me with heavy pulses. This compressed me and pushed most of the air out of my chest, great. Within seconds I was totally detained like being in solid concrete, could not even wiggle my fingers. Wow is that a strange feeling. Can you ever remember in your entire life, not being able to move any part of your body, pretty interesting.

Ok, well, guess I'll sit and wait. (like I had any choice in the matter)
Full face helmet allowed me some breathing room, but real shallow breaths.
Not sure why but never did panic or get scared, maybe no time to think about it or something. My buddy Brad (I thought he was gone to the next shoot over, luckily he didn't) saw it and had me dug out very quickly, sore back and some bruises but that was it.

I hope people reading this thread, get the proper gear, PRACTICE with that gear, and then most important, think."

[WARY]

From another site.....

"Got caught while out skiing today, but hopefully the experience is similar enough to be worth reading, and this was a slope that I would've highmarked and played on in a second had I been on my sled. Additionally this slope had been skied several times in the last 2 days with no issues... lots of tracks to make you feel safe. Nothing special in the Avy reports, but I was unlucky enough to hit a shallow spot and set off a large slide that propagated all the way across the slope and into a large sideloaded windslab, fortunately my luck changed drastically at this point. The crownface went from a foot deep to nearly 6 ft at the far edge. First thoughts were disbelief and then pissed at being so stupid to be in this situation. I kept swimming and struggling to keep my head uphill and working on staying on top of the snow. However the skis were like anchors that kept creating drag and flipping my head down the hill. Was finally able to pop my bindings off and then manuever my head uphill and feet downhill, while swimming to stay on top. Then was able to self arrest using my one ski pole I had left by grabbing it with both hands driving it straight down in the snow and keeping my feet downhill and underneath me to try and dig my toes in the snow. However as I slowed down, snow kept coming over me. I was eventually able to fully stop and let the snow outrun me, but I was buried waist to chest deep from the snow that piled up as I stopped. Plenty of time to think, and more than enough time in my case to activate an airbag if I would've had one. Went about 100-150yds before finally stopping, avy went for about 1000 vertical ft with a huge debris pile. And somewhere in that pile are 2 skis and a ski pole, don't think I'll be seeing those anytime soon. It was a long walk back to the car in waist deep snow. Its going to be a rough night of sleep as well...I could easily be dead. Be careful out there. "

[WARY]

Here's another one from a sledder, they are getting pounded out there this year..............

"It was Friday, March 13th, (I just realized it was Friday the 13th you can view this lucky or unlucky. I think I will view it as a lucky day) and we were planning on a three day weekend to work on the cabin and go to the snow expo. We had been riding Bryon’s bowl and decided to go down carrot creek towards butterfly. We had hit Bryon’s bowl and decided to ride further down. We stopped and built a fire and ate hot dogs for lunch. Right after lunch we started for Butterfly. On the way there we were hitting a couple of small hills and riding in the creek bottom. We stopped and were hitting a southeast facing hill that was pretty steep. As we would climb or turn out, the snow was really balling up. I thought right then that there may be some avalanche danger. I found out later that the avalanche danger was “moderate” that day. We continued down the creek and found a place that was pretty opened and started hitting a Northeast facing slope with a lot of tree coverage. I went up for my second pass and was thinking that I would shoot up past the trees that we had tried to get to the first time up. As I approached the trees, I could tell I wasn’t going to make it so I started to turn out. That is when I felt like I simply lost my balance and was falling off of my sled. The hill had started sliding and that is what caused me to lose my balance and fall off the sled. I think while I was turning out, I could not get traction to complete my turn, so I started to feel like I was going to roll, so I simply was falling off. I fell off of the sled. And as I did, I remember seeing my tether cord stretching out and me pushing my sled away from me. I wasn’t worried about my sled, as there were no real big trees at the bottom and the snow was deep enough that the sled wasn’t going to get damaged.

Now for the weird part, as I was falling into the snow, I thought to myself that I was going to slide a little ways but with the snow as deep as it was, I didn’t think I would slide very far. Well I went in head first pointing down the slope. And it immediately got very dark and felt like I was in a river. I kept thinking I should be slowing down but instead I kept going faster. I would see some light but could not see anything but snow all around me. I kept trying to get my head above the snow but just kept feeling like I was heading down. As I thought I would start to slow down, another wave would hit and I would speed up. I saw light (snow) then dark, then light (snow), then dark, then light again, and then dark. And when I say dark, it was pitch black. I have no idea how deep I was going, but it was very, very, dark. The entire ride only lasted about ten seconds and it wasn’t until the last 2 seconds that I realized I was in an avalanche. And even then I thought it was just a small little guy. The last two seconds were the scariest because as the slide slowed, everything around me started to tighten up and it was still very dark. Right before I came to a complete stop, my left arm and head poked up out of the abyss. And boy was I glad for that. I looked down the hill and I could see my buddy coming up towards me. I started yelling at him to get me out. The crushing feeling was very claustrophobic. He said to hold on that the mountain was still sliding. I could not move any part of my body that was under the snow. It was like cement and my legs and other arm was only under about two feet. When I say the feeling was crushing, I am not exaggerating.

I had the taste of stomach acid in my mouth right after this experience. From what I went through, I am pretty sure that even a foot under this snow, a person would pass out very quickly because of how tight the snow packs you in. It is a very sick feeling. When my pals dug me out, I was shocked to see how big and how much of the mountain had slid. I feel extremely lucky to have come out of this alive. I feel like I was given a second chance.

A side note, if you have an ABS system, always pull your cord. If you cannot control your slide, and you have no idea if you are or are not in an avalanche, pull your cord! I had no idea I was in an avalanche but the shear fact that I could not control my slide, and the fact that I couldn’t see anything but snow around me should have clued me in. The thing is, because you can’t see anything, you have no gauge on how fast you are moving or what is going on for sure. All I am saying is pull the cord no matter what."

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[WARY]

Check out these pictures....










Another story from a snowmobiler:
"Me and some friends were at Blue Lake today climbing some hills when we were caught in an avalanche. My buddy managed to out run it while I started floating on it. Well, near the bottom it started to suck me under. Once at a stop more came up behind me and pushed against me, never buried me. I was quick on the rip cord, so I was told by a buddy, “best $1000 I ever spent”. Now. you would have to be dumb not to get one. Scariest thing that has happened to me. Just thankful I’m still here."

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