Rescue artists of the new avalanche age

The incident this piece revolves around seems strange. I can't find the avalanche report to confirm this, since only fatal accidents seem to be publicly available [1] (all reported US avalanches are cataloged publicly [2]).

First, it seems like the burial victim was on the surface for 30 minutes and wasn't found by his companions - who also had avalanche beacons. It's very common for people to panic after an avalanche burial - the comments of any youtube footage of avalanche rescues will be full of people screaming "you idiot, why did you take off your gloves/not spread out/forget to set your transponder to search". Because these are simple things that people forget. But I've never heard of rescuers, for a full half hour, failing to notice a fluorescent float bag on the surface of the avalanche field. Is it possible this was uncovered by rotor wash?

Then, the professional rescuer is described as asking on-site amateurs - twice! - to remove his shovel from his pack. This should never be necessary. All alpine packs are designed to hold avalanche gear - shovel and probe - in an isolated compartment for rapid ease of access. It's just an odd note that makes the reader wonder what inaccuracies have crept into the story, or, if it actually happened as described, makes the reader wish the author had the expertise to notice and explore these anomalies in the incident.

1. https://www.slf.ch/en/avalanches/destructive-avalanches-and-...

2. https://www.avalanche.state.co.us/caic/acc/acc_report.php?ac...

This sort of thing might work in the heart of the Alps where there are villages and helipads scattered around the bases of these giant mountains, but absolutely do not rely on this type of rescue method in North America. The rate of survival after just 20 minutes of being buried drops logarithmically. Pulling someone out alive after 3 hours of burial as per this story is an extreme outlier.

Also not to criticize but they got warning that someone was buried, got airborne in their helicopter, but then flew 8 minutes out of their way to a neighborhood to pick up a doctor first? That seems like a huge waste of time when every minute counts. Not to mention that searching a slope that just slid with a loud, powerful helicopter can easily cause additional slides onto the same area.

The only way you're going to survive a full avalanche burial in the US or Canada is if you have an active beacon strapped to you and someone onsite survives the slide and finds you with their beacon + probe. Then they need to shovel through dense avy debris which is essentially cement. When snow slides, it rapidly heats up and then when it stops, it rapidly cools and hardens around a slide victim. Priority is to find the victim's head and clear the airway, then assess for injuries and warm them up.

Helicopters aren't the "new age". Maybe someone will come up with a better way to precisely find victims than the current beacon technology. Maybe airbag technology will improve and become more successful. Maybe we'll go back to the really old days and ski with balloon attached to our waist to help quickly mark a burial location.

Taking an AIARE course really opens your eyes to the violence and unpredictability of avalanches. Those cute ski dogs are there to find your dead body, not dig you out alive. Helicopters are there to transport you after you've been dug out, not to land and rescue you from burial. Be smart out there folks.

If you're curious about learning more, read the incident reports from fatal avalanches. Centers around the country do very thorough examinations of each incident, and post them publicly complete with images, terrain reports, weather reports, and sometimes video reports. https://utahavalanchecenter.org/avalanches/fatalities

I was caught in an avalanche a few years ago and was very lucky to not get caught below the surface. Although there wasn’t much time to think I felt for sure I was going to die. Be careful out there.

Woah. What an intersection of cultures... a GQ article, on avalanche rescue, posted on HN. I'm excited to read the conversation. There are many problems/inconsistencies/vagueries in the article that make little sense. It seems the author doesn't have much expertise in avalanches and didn't have an expert consult on the final (interesting-ish) piece. I wonder why this particular incident was chosen, as it's fairly uninteresting as far as backcountry rescues go. I also wonder why a publication like GQ doesn't have an expert write these articles...

First, "his two friends followed at a safe distance, a few dozen yards behind". Anyone who has taken an avy safety course should know that that is anything but safe. The friends should have never been in the couloir with him, there should have been someone scoping line of sight [1]. This is such a key point because, although these mountain services are doing god's work in terms of keeping people safe, your friends are by far your most important (and often only) rescue support. The article highlights this with them standing dumbfounded at the crown of the avalanche, and their friend nearly paid with their life.

Second, wind slabs aren't inherently unsafe just because there is "new snow stacked on old snow" although they statistically frequently lead to unsafe conditions. The safety of snow conditions is about the layers in the snowpack and what is in between them, is there a surface for this wind slab to slide on? The author misses a great opportunity to briefly educate readers (and themselves) on the details of avalanche safety here.

Third, for those of you interested in this type of thing the Colorado information center does field reports on avalanches and burials and keeps an absolute wealth of data on hand on as many of the parameters as possible [2]. I have some ideas for some analyses using these data that could provide insight into avalanche conditions and variability but never have the time. Avalanche research is very very underfunded.

And finally, if anyone is looking for a great book on the mechanics of avalanches (i.e. engineering mechanics), check out "Avalanche Dynamics" by Pudasaini [3]. It's by far the best text covering the literature on the internal aspects of avalanches. It has all the good makings of really difficult/interesting science, statics, fluids, dynamics, inhomogeneity, a dearth of data, real world complexity, relative lack of importance to the survival of the human species...

[1] https://www.jonessnowboards.com/content/362-how-to-descend-i...

[2] https://www.avalanche.state.co.us/observations/field-reports...

[3] https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-540-32687-8

Postscript:

This is such a GQ fucking article, complete with useless paragraphs of fluffy flowery language that lean towards a mediocre impersonation of Hunter S. Thompson. Love it.