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.
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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.
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In recent years, thanks to the ultralight backpacking scene, we have many high-performance, lightweight fabrics to choose from. But keeping up with R&D trends and off-the-shelf lightweight fabric options is dizzying. We’ll run through some of the main fabrics currently in play and get thoughts from pack makers Gavin Hess from Apocalypse Equipment (and THR) and Matt Zia from Otterbody Threadworks.
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Some people cringe at the thought of oversight, others exhale with relief. Considering the gear we rely on for safe mountain travel, oversight is often a good thing. Climbers, mountaineers, and alpinists are likely familiar with the UIAA stamp of approval on much of their gear. The International Climbing and Mountaineering Federation, or UIAA, helps set safety standards for equipment like climbing ropes, harnesses, and helmets. Recently, they adopted safety standards for avalanche rescue probes and shovels. In the future, expect the UIAA to establish standards for avalanche transceivers too.
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At the recently concluded International Snow Science Workshop (ISSW), a paper presented by an Italian group titled “Dig Close, Dig Fast. A Study on the Consequences of Excavation Start Point Choice in Avalanche Companion Rescue,” explores the efficacy of some well-accepted practices relating to removing snow effectively, accessing a victim, and exposing their airway.
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