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Avalanche survival tip: don’t swim

Monday, 01. 22. 2007  –  Category: Snowboarding

Interesting post at pistehors.com which picks up on comments by avalanche expert Dale Atkins who has nearly 20 experience working as a senior avalanche forecaster, ski patroller and rescue worker.

Atkins says that the most important thing to do if buried is to maintain a breathing space around your mouth. In twenty years of investigating incidents and nearly three decades of pulling bodies out of the snow Dale says the most striking factor was no breathing space and hands a long way from the face. If victims are frantically flailing with their arms it is hard to make a space in the second when the slide comes to a rapid halt and solidifies. Victims have described how they could not even open their eyelids due to the pressure of the snow, it was as if entombed in concrete.

The most important thing is to get rid of anchors such as ski poles (you shouldn’t have pole loops anyway) and skis but to keep your rucksack - it adds volume and helps protects your back if carried over rocks or cliffs. Although many survivors describe how they swam to stay on the surface Atkins says it was their volume, not swimming, that really kept them afloat and compares the advice to a course of leeches, if people survive the doctors claim that the leeches did the trick.

Well worth a read.

Tags: Avalanche, Mountain safety