Item: Avalanche Forecasting for Safe Travel in the Backcountry: The 5-Step Checklist
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Title: Avalanche Forecasting for Safe Travel in the Backcountry: The 5-Step Checklist
Proceedings: Proceedings, 2012 International Snow Science Workshop, Anchorage, Alaska
Authors:
- Mike Wiegele [ MWHS, Blue River, BC, Canada ]
Date: 2012
Abstract: Operators and ski guides are in-field practitioners with a responsibility to provide a safe and enjoyable experience for clients and employees. As practitioners, our No. 1 goal is safety. Within the mechanized ski industry, an effective risk management and loss prevention plan, including a rescue plan, needs to be in place to ensure safe travel within avalanche terrain. Mike Wiegele Helicopter Skiing (MWHS) employs a proven 5 Step Checklist System for snow stability rating and avalanche danger forecasting. This focuses our decision making for safe terrain selection and guiding procedures. The ability to travel safely in avalanche terrain relies on early detection, forewarning and methodological gathering of information of avalanche danger prior to heading into the mountains and before descending down each ski run. The purpose and goal of the 5-Step Checklist is to provide a systematic approach for safe travel in the mountains. It methodically provides information pertinent to analyses and interpretation of reasonable and accurate snow stability ratings and avalanche danger forecasting in a particular ski region and for specific slopes, where backcountry skiers are exposed to a potential avalanches during their climb to the high alpine terrain and their descent to the valley floor. The information and procedures laid out in this paper can help shape a better international avalanche standard of safety and practices throughout the ski industry and the world.
Object ID: issw-2012-157-160.pdf
Language of Article: English
Presenter(s): Unknown
Keywords: back country, snowpack stability, avalanche awareness, solar radiation
Page Number(s): 157-160
Subjects: backcountry skiing snowpack properties
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