Author: Jason Albert

UIAA Avalanche Rescue Shovel Standards

UIAA Avalanche Rescue Shovel Standards

Written by | Dec 6, 2023

We could, but we won’t shovel a heap full of BS your way and tell you any shovel is a worthy avalanche shovel in a rescue scenario. It’s one thing to have a tool worthy enough to shovel a dainty amount of snow into the WindBurner for the night’s tea, and a whole different dimension regarding a shovel used as an active rescue tool. There’s no cutting corners when digging a partner out.

In 2018, the International Climbing and Mountaineering Federation (UIAA) published safety standards for “avalanche rescue shovels.”

Read More
To the Hills & Back: An Avalanche Education Film

To the Hills & Back: An Avalanche Education Film

Written by | Nov 26, 2023

To the Hills & Back opens with a scene where Adam Campbell ties a wedding band onto some cord to wear around his neck. Campbell is deep in the backcountry with a friend, Kevin Hertjaas.

I recognized Campbell and his story immediately. In 2020, he, Hertjaas, and Campbell’s wife, Laura Kosakoski, were touring outside Canmore. Campbell inadvertently triggered a slide that buried and ultimately killed Kosakoski. Just writing that sentence elicits the film’s constant heavy gravity. Although I had read much about Campbell and the ill-fated day after the accident, it is a whole other level to see another person grieve as intensely as Campbell does in his retelling.

Read More
Book Review: The Avalanche Factor by Joe Stock

Book Review: The Avalanche Factor by Joe Stock

Written by | Nov 22, 2023

In his introduction to The Avalanche Factor, Stock writes, “If you are interested in Avalanches, this book addresses two questions: Why do people get caught in avalanches? and How can we avoid getting caught?”

Those questions, ultimately, pivot toward who the book’s potential readers are. Let’s get this out front—any backcountry tourists should be reading this book since, by default, you should be interested in the two foundational questions posed and answered in The Avalanche Factor. 

Those questions, ultimately, pivot toward who the book’s potential readers are. Let’s get this out front—any backcountry tourists should be reading this book since, by default, you should be interested in the two foundational questions posed and answered in The Avalanche Factor. 

Read More
Avalanche Center Resources: The CAIC

Avalanche Center Resources: The CAIC

Written by | Nov 14, 2023

Over the next few months, The High Route will highlight some of the avalanche centers and their good work. We’ll do our best to offer a global perspective. The intent here is not to create a hierarchy of excellence but to connect readers with resources that might ultimately allow them to make better decisions in the backcountry. First up, the Colorado Avalanche Information Center. 

Read More
The Chess Match of High Density Skiing

The Chess Match of High Density Skiing

Written by | Nov 9, 2023

Inter-Party Avalanche Involvements: There is a generally accepted and often repeated assumption that the backcountry is overrun with humans. Are there more of us out there? The idea of party density and the reality of managing autonomous groups touring in the same zone, and often on the same run, is a real dynamic. To say the backcountry is a swarming hive of reckless and adaptable bipeds, each caught in their cascade of heuristic traps, is overreach. But there are crowds.

Read More