Welcome to winter! Not the calendar year, of course, but the de
facto “winter season” – skiing and ice climbing! I am so excited to spend the winter
in a place that has a strong winter. Which means lots of backcountry skiing!
Backcountry skiing is beautiful, but has more risks than resort
skiing. The biggest concern is avalanches. In the backcountry, you must make
your own decisions – and live with the consequences. As a result, skiers in the
backcountry bring an array of tools to assist in the (unlikely, unfortunate)
event of an avalanche.
At several ski resorts’ backcountry areas, for example, you are
only allowed to “duct the ropes” and enter the backcountry (unpatrolled) area
if you have a beacon, probe, shovel, and partners. After all, even if you have
the right gear, if you are alone, no one will be there to dig you up should you
get buried. Other pieces of gear that have entered into the backcountry skier’s
avalanche toolkit are Black Diamond’s Avalung and BCA’s Float.
The Avalung, by Black Diamond. Photo from blackdiamondequipment.com
The Avalung is a really cool device. If you are buried and have an
Avalung (and are using it properly), you can essentially breathe while
underneath the snow. Snow itself has quite a lot of air in it. The Avalung
allows you to breathe this air in, and doesn’t create an ice lens near your
mouth. If you simply have your hand out in front of your mouth to create a
small air pocket (a good idea if you don’t have an Avalung), even with this
small air pocket, you will run out of air before long because warm, moist
breath will make an ice lens on the pocket and not allow air to pass in.
With
the Avalung, however, the air intake and exhaust are in different places, which
allows you to breathe for significantly longer. Some victims have been buried
for 45 minutes – and remained fully conscious breathing through an Avalung –
until their rescue. The Black Diamond website says that the “Avalung can
significantly extend your fresh air supply from an estimated 15 minutes to 58
minutes or more – dramatically increasing your odds of being dug out of an
avalanche alive.”
So what is it?
How an Avalung works. Photo from blackdiamondequipment.com
The Avalung itself is quite
simple. There is a tube (that looks a bit like a bagpipe mouthpiece) through
which you breathe in and out. The intake is in a different place as the exhaust,
which prevents using up all the air in one spot and also prevents the ice lens
mentioned above.
The standard Avalung weighs a mere 9 ounces and costs about $140 – a reasonable purchase considering its
potential benefits. They come in three sizes for different size people.
Important things to know about the Avalung are that:
1. You must have the
mouthpiece IN your mouth while traveling through avalanche terrain. It is
unlikely that you will be able to bring the mouthpiece to your mouth in you get
caught in an avalanche.
2. You MUST have the Avalung on the outside of your clothing. If it
is underneath your jacket, for example, you will not be able to breathe air
from the outside! So, if you are going to change your clothing, you need to replace
the Avalung to the outside.
3. Avalungs come built into backpacks! This is a great solution to
the previous problem, since your pack is almost never covered. Make sure to
have the Avalung vent areas open (not covered). Black Diamond makes a line of packs that have
Avalungs built-in. The only drawback is that you cannot take the Avalung out of
one pack and put it in another. You would have to buy multiple Avalung packs.
The line ranges from the tiny 11-L Bandit pack, meant for short jaunts in the
sidecountry or heliskiing, to the 43-L Anarchist, perfect for multi-day
backcountry tours and ski mountaineering objectives. I look forward to testing
out my Anarchist this winter. I’ll post a review when I’ve had enough time
using it.
The Anarchist pack, with a built-in Avalung. Photo from blackdiamondequipment.com
One thing to keep in mind is that this will not make you
invincible. Many avalanche victims are injured or killed by the trauma – the force
of an avalanche – and not by suffocation. The Avalung will not of course do anything
to help this.
To reiterate, make sure to keep the mouthpiece in your mouth if
you think you might be caught in an avalanche. It is much easier to keep the
mouthpiece in your mouth than it is to put it in while you’re being caught by a
slide.
You can read more about the Avalung here:
Please take an avalanche course before you travel in the backcountry - know those skills! Enjoy, be safe, and make sure to travel in the backcountry safely!
--Mike Pond, Instructor and Guide
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