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raist
Feb 18, 2010, 2:58 PM
Post #1 of 4
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Registered: Feb 18, 2010
Posts: 12
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when skiing the other day ran into guy that had interesting avalanche card to help judge safety of conditions.
Said it was european, had like sliders or maybe dials you used to indicate a number of conditions and at the end gives you like happy - unhappy face :-D
I wanted to pick one up and experiment with it more but I've completely forgotten the name.
Anyone know what those are, or know where to get them? I can't find it but I don't know quite what to call it exactly either. I haven't seen it at the places I know of that sell a lot of aval tools.
It looked like he might have put it away in a little book that seemed made for it.
thanks in advance
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qwert
Feb 18, 2010, 4:56 PM
Post #2 of 4
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Registered: Mar 24, 2004
Posts: 2394
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Dont know about something with dials and smileys, but there is the snowcard:
http://www.av-snowcard.de/
The surface is this flip-flop holographic thing, so that it is either "god exposures" or "bad exposures" (you should get those from the avalanche bulletin).
So you have to judge in what conditions you are and position the card accordingly, and then you add the warning level, and you wich steepness is ok.
So for example i consider the area a bad exposure and i am at warning level 3. So i only can do stuff under a 27° angle with the least risk possible.
Starting at 29° it gets already critical, whereas really bad already starts at about 31°.
And so on.
qwert
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xtrmecat
Feb 18, 2010, 5:48 PM
Post #3 of 4
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Registered: Apr 1, 2004
Posts: 548
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Sorry, I have never seen the card you mentioned, but felt the urge to make a comment on the use of a tool such as this.
I have a butt load of time out in the backcountry in winter, and lots of training on avalanche danger assessment. I have found that the last short refresher course I attended yielded the best information I have ever gotten. It may have been given to me earlier, but I never felt it to be as important as I do now. I do not know where I crossed the threshold either.
First let me explain, I was the one who assessed conditions and informed others with what I would have considered accurate forcast and condition and laid out my opinion of the risks and chances we were probably going to see. A lot of the time we changed the agenda to involve better terrain, and sometimes we would practice riskier behavior, while always at the ready with rescue gear, but go into dangerous situations anyhow.
I have set off more than my share of slides, most insignificant, and a few that were not. I considered it an OK practice, riding the line, but always aware of what we were getting into. I have dug out friends and travel companions as well as strangers, and always considered it part of the game.
Now the point. In the last session of training the instructor said something that will always be wedged into my craw, and never be seen the same again. We can utilize every tool and method known, and if we don't make the right decision, then it is all in vain. I find myself digging fewer pits, checking temps and layers with a little less scientific style practice, and making better decisions.
Since this change I have not been involved in a slide other than a surface sluff of very insignificant consequence. I still get out, and my mileage may be slightly less, but the confidence of knowing I am not risking jack, makes for better quality days. I still carry the same gear, travel the same country, but rely more heavily on the one tool that makes the others less than they used to be. My mind.
The card may help you to decide where to draw the line, or maybe not, but it is just one of many tools to be employed, and not even near as powerful as I once would have considered it.
Just my $0.02.
Bob
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