Interesting video and commentary from the guy caught. It’s rare that someone has an Avalung, rarer so an airbag pack, and this guy is in the .0000001% of people that have both. What’s I find interesting is that he originally had troubling finding the pack’s cord (likely from it being new to him) and opted to get his Avalung in place so he could continue breathing.
It is here, before the need for rescue gear (shovel, beacon probe), where our preventative measures and gear come into place. I cut hard 45 degrees after seeing the cracks. Mistaking a breaking bit of slab for the edge of the slide, I actually though I would make it just before the rug was pulled out from under me. Lucky for me, I don’t use pole straps (another preventative measure) so the only violent tugging came from my skis, which quickly broke off (literally) despite 14 din settings.
Now was the time to engage the emergency gear. I was wearing a BCA airbag pack (Float 30) but had never even practice-pulled the cord. Indeed, this was only the second day I ever wore it, finding it difficult to find a place to fill it in Japan. With snow being pushed down my throat, I prioritized the avalung, which went in with ease and refocused on pulling the cord. I was being violently tumbled and quickly sank when I started to use my arms to place the lung and pull the cord but the second it was pulled I could feel myself float to the surface and the tumbling slowed. By the end, the bag had my floating on my back, with my feet down slope, not dissimilar to canyoning.
The runnout was wide and open so I doubt I would have been buried in the end but the equipment served a function nonetheless. The avalung allowed me to breathe rather than choke while tumbling, a big plus when I went to work on my airbag. The airbag changed the washing machine tumble into a gentler slide and kept me much closer to the surface (there was some pepper on the slope so close to the surface was a better place to be, even if it was going to spread out in the runnout). Finally, perhaps the most important piece of emergency equipment was the helmet. I did not bang my head but it was possible. More importantly in this case, it kept my goggles in place and made it much easier to see the avalung, ripcord and which way was up. If you are going to wear emergency preventative equipment, methinks a helmet should top the list.
Another thing that’s crazy is what took him 40 seconds to go down in the avalanche took his party 3 minutes to ski down – and you’ve got to believe they were amped up on adrenaline and trying to get to their guy ASAP! So nuts.
Be safe out there folks. Seems like the past 30 days I’ve seen/heard/read of a LOT of avalanche near misses and not so misses, don’t know if that’s due to powder fever, more n00bs, or just those lurking layers being hard to find and analyze.
If your local shop doesn’t carry the BCA Float pack you can pick them up online here
Saw this on BD’s site today, which means you have to take it with a grain of salt in these days of advertorials and hyperskepticism. Of course there are those that still ride the BC without beeping or rollerblade without wrist guards (*a-man*COUGHCOUGH), and quite frankly I would have never considered a helmet if in two consecutive weeks one of my friends wasn’t found randomly on the mountain KO’d and the following two saw back-to-back broken backs (though the lesson from that has nothing to do with helmets and everything to do with old people shouldn’t ride park) – and still only wear it a small % of the time. In the end though anything trying to make the sport safer is interesting, and anyone that has taken a tree well dive will smell the fresh crushed pine when reading this…
From: Pete Lev
Sent: Monday, January 10, 2011 10:23 AM
Subject: My Avalung II saved my life!
I am sending this to everyone I know who skis or boards. My hope is that it may save additional lives as it saved mine the other day.
So far this year, two people have died at the Big Mountain Ski area due to tree well entrapments. I was almost another victim last Friday January 7th, 2011.
The snow has been piling up and getting deep. So as I do every year, I started to wear my AvaLung. I also had my pack with probe, shovel, etc. and had my transceiver turned on. Some people I know don’t wear their gear in-bounds and think these areas are safe since ski-area personnel control them. But you can become entrapped in a tree well In-bounds just as easily as you can skiing out-of-bounds.
My wife & I were skiing an open area on a run called Evans Heavan. It was very foggy and we had decided to make this our last run due to the poor visibility and the newly fallen deep wet snow was starting to set up. I caught an edge and flipped over into a tree well. I landed with my head upside-down and slid down into a hole underneath the tree branches.
I did not have my AvaLung in my mouth but it was poised in position directly in front of my mouth. The impact from the snow pushed the mouthpiece out of position and I could not bite onto it. My ski poles had separated from my hands but there was 2 feet of snow between my face and hands. Snow had compacted in front of my face. The impact from the fall had knocked the air out of my lungs and as my body instinctively gasped for air, I swallowed a fair amount of snow and choked as I attempted to push the snow away from my face and to locate my AvaLung mouth piece. I located it and shoved it into my mouth, inhaled and got more snow into my lungs. Fortunately when I exhaled the snow blew out through the AvaLung and I started to breathe though the device.
After a minute or so my breathing started to regulate and I calmed down. I dug and pushed away the snow that was covering my goggles and looked around. There was a small air pocket in front of me underneath one of the tree branches. I wiggled and pulled my head and upper body underneath the branch. I removed more snow that was covering my 2-way radio (strapped to my backpack cross chest strap) I removed the AvaLung mouthpiece and called on the two-way radio to my wife. She was only 50 feet from me and didn’t know where I was. The thought of blowing the whistle that was in my chest pocket never came to mind, nor did using the siren feature on my radio. I guess even though you have all the gear, under stress, you may not use it properly in a panic situation.
My wife got the radio call and started to search for me. But she had not worn her transceiver that day. So she could not locate me. It was up to me to get myself out! Fortunately my skis were not too twisted up and were closer to the surface than the rest of me. I used the tree branches to pull myself toward the surface and kept punching a path upward. After a few minutes I had made a hole big enough to stick out my hand. My wife saw my waving hand and started to work her way uphill to help. The snow was deep and hard for her to step uphill. Before she made it to me I had managed to free myself. I was shaken and distraught. That night I had repeated nightmares of being trapped. It was a horrifying experience.
I am convinced that without that AvaLung II strapped on, I would not be writing this letter. Thank you to who ever invented that AvaLung and thank you Black Diamond for selling such a great piece of equipment. I soon plan on replacing the AvaLung II with one of the new AvaLung Packs.
I now ski with the AvaLung II’s mouthpiece in my mouth whenever I am skiing in the trees or gladed areas, since I now know that if it isn’t in your mouth, you might not be able locate it when you are disoriented. Here is a link to some additional tree well safety tips.
The article also gives you some great safety tips on how to ski with your partner or friends.
http://treewelldeepsnowsafety.com/
Again…. the AvaLung II saved my life. I will forever be grateful!
— Pete Lev,
Whitefish, MT
*note that a-man doesn’t actually rollerblade and is actually doing some writing for YoBeat now, so comment on his articles and tell YB how much you like his writing so he gets his due
Yeah, I know most of you out there have probably seen these vids, but I was thinking about the Avalung and other ‘avalanche safety’ devices this morning (it’s 80 out, you’d think I’d be thinking about surfing or something right?). I actually own a standalone Avalung that was a gift from the lady friend for Christmas, but I’ve honestly yet to wear it in the backcountry (shhh, don’t tell her!). Fortunately it hasn’t been like the first day I got my helmet, forgot it in the car initially, and later parked my dome in a tree (luckily a friend reminded me to grab my helmet at lunch), demolishing helmet #1. Between my beacon, my SLR chest harness, and constantly shedding layers (yes, I’m a fat, sweaty bitch) it’s yet to make it out – though granted most of the days I’ve gone out have been low risk days. For days that I deem a bit sketchier I’ll definitely wear it. Yes, they make the Avalung packs, and damn they’d be convenient, but my issue with them is being married to one pack design and size (Black Diamond please license the technology out to others!). Excuses excuses, I know. On to the vids.
Vid 1: Chris Cardello’s first person view of his burial in AK earlier this year. I know this made the rounds earlier this year, but still pretty amazing.
Vid 2: Non-embeddable, but interesting. Craig Dostie of Couloir Magazine (now Backcountry Magazine) volunteered to be buried for an hour while wearing an Avalung. It’s a longer vid so you may want to fast forward through parts, but definitely makes you think. His first person recount of the burial can be seen here.
Craig Dostie buried while wearing Avalung
The naysayers will continue to say it’s inconvenient, not a guarantee as you’ve got to get it in your mouth and keep it there, and can lead to bad decision making. The opposing view points out that if you are in an avalanche you’ll want every advantage you can think of to extend your life. I’ll continue to fall somewhere inbetween with my thinking – though I have to admit I am fond of living.
