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We Need More: Avalanche Rescue Education isn’t Enough.

By

Patrick Fink

A north facing slope in Central Oregon with recent slide activity.

This year, avalanche accidents in Oregon, Idaho, Montana, and Utah have highlighted the reality that avalanche rescue doesn’t end when the skier is located and extracted. In each of these cases, CPR was required, and in the Oregon and Montana cases, trauma care was needed as well. While dissecting accident reports can be informative and…

Responses

  1. Slim

    Good points Patrick!
    I have tried to keep my CPR training up to date, and once I started doing avalanche rescue training, this is something I have thought about, but not put into practice in drills.
    I think at a minimum, when I practice at home, I need to do a mock first aid drill on my buried backpack.

    I just finished my first WFR course, where of course they say: get rescue training for the activity you are in.

    I agree that everyone should have CPR training, but on the other hand, should an avalanche course require it? After all, if someone is buried, I’d still prefer that someone knows how to find and excavate them, and not know CPR, than not know CPR AND not know how to dig them out.

    I do think, on the other hand, that CPR mannequins, ideally with attached legs, should be a required part of an avalanche rescue course, and probably some form of CPR training as well.

    1. Patrick Fink

      The primacy of location and excavation is a fair point, and one that I suspect current educators would use. Increasing prerequisites to a course or the duration of the course itself will prevent some number of people from taking it in the first place. On the other hand the Rec Level 1 courses are basically pitched as giving you the minimum knowledge necessary to safely access the backcountry, and if they’re to hew to that standard, I think including basic medical care is 100% necessary.

  2. Colby Stetson

    Basic first aid should be a prerequisite for graduating high school

    1. Patrick Fink

      I share your sentiment. The more saturated a community is with CPR trained humans, the better survival rates tend to be in that community. Basic medical knowledge also empowers bystanders to intervene during the first minutes of an emergency, which can be the most critical time. I think that CPR/AED training and Stop the Bleed training would be excellent additions to both high school and college curricula.

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