Avalanche Safety Tips
Skiing is a fun and exciting activity in which anybody can participate, as long as they have the skills needed. Men and women, and even children, are engaged in this activity, both as a pastime and as a competitive sport.
While it is indeed popular, skiing can be quite dangerous at times. Inexperienced skiers and beginners are most likely to have cuts and bruises in their first and successive tries at skiing. Expert skiers are not immune though, as they too can experience some mishaps that can lead to minor to more serious injuries, and in the worst case scenario, permanent disability or death.
Some accidents and injuries are caused by the skiers themselves, often from blunders or miscalculations on landings and jumps. But some accidents are caused by the environment itself. Some accidents may be attributed to the sliding of large tracts of snow or, as it is commonly called, avalanches.
An avalanche happens when snow rapidly descends from the mountain, engulfing everything on its path. These are very common on backcountry areas. A powerful avalanche can uproot trees, entrain rocks, and even engulf skiers blocking its path. The engulfed skier, or skiers, is most likely to suffer from hypothermia, suffocation, shock, or all of them. This may end up badly for the skiers trapped if help is not available, as hypothermia can lead to lack of oxygen and death.
But there are ways to survive an avalanche, or even prevent avalanches from happening. Avalanches can be, somehow, contained. Ski resorts are responsible for taking extra measures to prevent avalanches from happening. They use explosives, to trigger small avalanches in order to prevent a much larger avalanche from happening, therefore lessening the threat of skiers being engulfed.
Another way they can help reduce the casualties during the event of an avalanche is through snow fences. These fences can hold off the snow, preventing the build-up of snow, in effect, reducing the strength of the avalanche.
These are some ways that ski resorts do to ensure the safety of their customers. But what happens if, despite all the measures they took and all the precautions you have made, you are still caught in an avalanche? Here are some avalanche safety tips to survive the predicament:
- First, don’t panic. Panicking will only result to you gasping for more air, wasting oxygen in the process.
- Next thing to do is to try to call out. Help is most likely to come in a minute or two, so try to call out so that they can determine your location.
- If help is still on the way, make swimming motions to keep yourself on the top.
- If you have a beacon at hand, be sure to turn it on.
- If in a group, try to huddle together to generate body heat. Keep yourself and others awake. Stay with them.
- Do keep an eye on masses of snow and stay away from them. These might cause another torrent of avalanches.
- If found, make sure that they treat you for hypothermia, suffocation, and shock, regardless of how well you look.
These are some avalanche safety tips to ensure you, or your groups’ survival. To know more about avalanches, you can browse in the Internet for more tips and information about avalanche safety and avalanche awareness.