The Colorado Avalanche Information Center (CAIC) reports a snowmobiler on Jones Pass narrowly escaped The Chop after deploying his airbag during an avalanche, December 12. The guy triggered the slide from low-angle terrain 200 feet below the initial fracture. This has been a subject of debate and research over the past couple seasons–that is, whether or not to determine the slope angle at the point from which the avalanche is triggered, or where it starts.
Whatever the case, one of the lessons here is that hard slabs usually fracture ABOVE the person triggering them–in this case 200 feet! Traversing beneath a steep slope doesn’t always offer safety, and generally there’s no escaping once you’ve triggered the thing.
Lesson number two–airbags work. This gent deployed his and it gave him just enough flotation to get back to the surface and swim to the side. He came to rest at the flank of the debris before the main flow of the avalanche stormed off a cliff. Yikes.
I have an article coming out in the magazine in January discussing airbags and I’ll end this post the way the print article does–by asking, why aren’t we all using airbags? Adding four-or-so pounds to your kit doesn’t seem like much when you read a report like the Jones Pass incident. The BCA Float 30 retails for $700. Worth it?
