From Deseret News archives:
Know facts about Utah avalanches
It is not fun, says Craig Gordon, avalanche forecaster/educator with the Utah Avalanche Center. What follows is Gordon's insight into avalanches.
It doesn't matter what you're riding when you break loose an avalanche skis, snowboard, snowmobile, snowshoes it's all the same thing.
When we're out we don't feel the difference in two, three or four degrees in slope angle, but avalanches are all over it. Does it matter what tracks are on the slopes? Of course not. An avalanche doesn't know who made the tracks, it just knows someone came along and irritated the snowpack, and it is making this (avalanche) cranky.
You get tumbled down this slope, slamming into rocks and getting wrapped around trees. When you get to the bottom, there's a one in four chance you'll die from getting beaten up in the avalanche.
Then, at this point, you will have to rely on your rescue party. There's no time for outside rescue help. You've got 15 minutes to live under the snow. Avalanche debris sets up like concrete in just a second or two, so you can't move. You can't help yourself.
Now the rescue party has got to get into gear. Statistically, we lose the ability to be found alive as time goes by.
That's why you've got to have an avalanche beacon, shovel and probe when going in the backcountry. And you've got to wear this stuff on your body. You've got to wear a beacon under the coat and either put the shovel on a pack or hook it around your shoulders. If it's under the seat or hood of a machine, and you are separated, then you're separated from the rescue gear.
The shovel, beacon and probe are like the airbag in your car they are things you don't want to use but are happy to have if there is an accident.
And once you have the gear, you've got to practice and practice often.
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