Know facts about Utah avalanches

Being swept down a mountainside with an avalanche isn't anything like a wild ride at a theme park where the rider stands up at the end, smiles and waves at friends and family.

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.

When an avalanche breaks loose, anyone caught is off for the ride of his or her life. You don't know which way is up or down. Maybe, in a corner of your eye for a split second, you see cracks propagating around you, and you're thinking this isn't good. You're thinking maybe I can outrun this thing, and you grab a fist full of throttle, but as you do you're caught and going 40 miles per hour in two or three seconds. You're knocked off your machine and thinking maybe I'll grab this tree on the way down. But, you're going 40 to 50 mph, now, which is like stepping outside your car and trying to grab a tree. It snaps off in your hand and off you go.

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.