Item: Acceptable risk for backcountry skiers and riders from avalanche hazards: Differences in uphill and downhill terrain selection
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Title: Acceptable risk for backcountry skiers and riders from avalanche hazards: Differences in uphill and downhill terrain selection
Proceedings: International Snow Science Workshop Proceedings 2018, Innsbruck, Austria
Authors:
- Aubrey D. Miller [ National School of Surveying, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand ]
- John R. Squires [ Rocky Mountain Research Station, US Forest Service, Missoula, MT, USA ]
- Lucretia E. Olson [ Rocky Mountain Research Station, US Forest Service, Missoula, MT, USA ]
- Elizabeth K. Roberts [ White River National Forest, US Forest Service, Glenwood Springs, CO, USA ]
Date: 2018-10-07
Abstract: Backcountry skiers and riders move through terrain differently depending on whether they are traveling uphill, downhill or along rolling or flat terrain. For example, skiers often follow ridgelines or travel through denser tree cover when ascending but select more open and often steeper terrain when descending. The movement characteristics of a recreationist affects exposure to avalanche terrain hazard. Using a GPS point dataset (n=433,555 points from 687 individual tracks) of winter recreationist movement patterns from Colorado, USA, collected between 2011 and 2013, this analysis tested if it is possible to measure whether backcountry skiers and riders increased their exposure to terrainrelated avalanche risk when traveling downhill, compared with traveling uphill. In other words, was backcountry skier/rider terrain selection more conservative when ascending? GPS points were segmented into uphill/downhill using an adapted Douglas-Peucker-Ramer generalization algorithm. Physical terrain variables including elevation, slope angle, slope curvature, slope position, aspect, terrain roughness, heat loading, and percent tree canopy cover for each point were used to characterize differences between the uphill and downhill portions of the trip. As a proxy for avalanche risk from snowpack conditions, differences in the forecasted avalanche danger (from North American scale of Low to Extreme) were tested as well. Results provide practitioners and researchers with insights into terrain selection and risk exposure for non motorized-assisted backcountry skiers/riders.
Object ID: ISSW2018_P19.3.pdf
Language of Article: English
Presenter(s):
Keywords: Terrain selection, GPS tracking, Recreation, GIS, Danger scale
Page Number(s): 1664-1668
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