Photo courtesy of Lisa Portune
An aerial view of Tincan Mountain over Turnagain Pass.
An aerial view of Tincan Mountain over Turnagain Pass.
By Lisa Portune
Special to the Turnagain Times
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Photo courtesy of Lisa Portune An aerial view of Tincan Mountain over Turnagain Pass. |
The Chugach and Kenai mountains of Southcentral Alaska are a backcountry powderhound’s dream, with a lifetime of skiing and riding opportunities right off the Seward Highway in Turnagain Pass. More and more folks are leaving the lift lines for the solitude, challenge, and untracked powder of the backcountry.
But with this rising popularity of backcountry skiing and snowboarding, along with more powerful snowmachines, more people are getting caught and killed in avalanches. Alaska leads the nation in per capita deaths, with 55 fatalities from 1997-2008.
Some keys facts:
1. Ninety percent of avalanche victims die in slides triggered by themselves or a member of their group.
2. It’s all about timing! Some days steep slopes are safe and other days they are not. Most accidents happen on bluebird days immediately after storms.
3. A completely buried victim has only a 30% chance of survival. Just because you are wearing an avalanche beacon does not mean you will survive a slide.
The first step in avoiding getting caught in an avalanche is recognizing avalanche terrain and common trigger points. Avalanches generally occur on slopes steeper than 30 degrees, with the primetime angles being 35-45 degrees, and the uber-primetime angle being 38 degrees. An inclinometer (great stocking stuffer!) is one of the most important pieces of equipment you should own. Common trigger points are near rock outcrops or other shallow areas of the snowpack where weak layers are closer to the surface and on convex rollovers where the snowpack is under greater stress.
There are numerous safe travel rules that will help increase your odds. The most important one is ski or ride a slope one at a time. By doing this you are never exposing more than one person to avalanche danger at a time. Watch your partners from a safe spot when they are skiing or riding the slope, and avoid stopping in or beneath avalanche paths. Stick to low angle ridges and dense trees on the ascent so that you can safely assess the snow stability on the way up. Although it seems like common courtesy, never ride up to help a stuck partner dig out his or her sled while highmarking. You are doubling the load on the snowpack. Watch the climber from a safe zone and keep your sled pointed away from the avalanche path for a quick escape.
There are five RED FLAGS that indicate unstable conditions:
1. Recent avalanches
2. Heavy snowfall or rain in the past 24 hours
3. Strong winds loading leeward aspects, even when it’s not snowing.
4. Significant warming or rapidly increasing temperatures
5. Signs of unstable snow: shooting cracks, whumphing sounds, hollow sounds on hard snow.
Always be alert to changing weather conditions during the course of the day that may increase the avalanche danger. Snow stability also changes in relation to aspect and elevation.
If your partner is caught in an avalanche, you do not have time to go for help. You are the help! You only have about a 15-minute window to find and dig up a completely buried person before he or she starts to asphyxiate. Watch the victim and note the last seen point.
First, make sure it is safe to search, and then look for surface clues such as hats, gloves, poles, etc. while simultaneously conducting a beacon search. Leave the surface clues in place as they may help establish the victim’s fall line Pinpoint the buried victim’s location with your beacon and probe before you dig. If the person is not wearing a beacon, do not give up and go for help yet. Probe around surface clues and likely catchment areas such as trees and terrain dips.
If you are caught in an avalanche, try to get off the slab by skiing or riding toward the edge at a 45-degree angle. If you get knocked down try to self-arrest by digging into the bed surface. Once caught in the turbulence, try to back stroke and log roll your way to the flanks of the slide. The main thing to do is FIGHT! As the avalanche slows down, use one arm to create an airspace around your mouth and thrust the other arm above the surface if you can.
If you venture into avalanche terrain, take a class and learn how to do it safely. There are many excellent avalanche awareness classes offered during the winter from the Alaska Avalanche School, NAOI, AIARE, AAIC in Valdez, and the US Forest Service here in Girdwood. Go to www.cnfaic.org to find the current avalanche advisory for the Turnagain Arm area updated Wednesday through Sunday or call the hotline at 754-2369.
You can find links to other great avalanche sites at www.avalanche.org.
Lisa Portune works at the Chugach National Forest Avalanche Information Center.