An AvaLung only increases your odds of not dying from suffocation if you are buried. Even with an AvaLung, if you are buried more than a meter or so, the weight of the snow pressing down on you is such that you cannot expand your chest to breathe. Sort of a boa constrictor effect. I helped with a body recovery last March at Hatch Peak where the skier was buried about 14 ft (4.25 meters) deep. An AvaLung would have done him no good whatsoever.

In the Pemberton incident, the skier was not buried, but died from trauma. Big slides are increadibly powerfull. Somewhere I have a photo I took in spring, after the snow had melted, of a place where one of our roads had been blocked by a slide. The guard rail is bent into a pretzel, and the guard rail posts are sheard off flush with the ground. A person caught in something like that will likely be killed outright, irrespective of whether they are buried or not.

The bottom line is that most avalanches are triggered by the victim, or someone in his/her group. While gear like beacons, AvaLungs, etc, increase your odds of survival, the best chance of survival is to not get caught to begin with.

Today, two more skiers were caught in an avalanche near Pemberton and not very far from the 1st avalanche a few days ago. These 2 people were lucky and and the person with the head injuries may live to see another day. Again, people need to stay out of the back country...

Note that Joffre Lake is just directly west of the Google Earth map screen shot I posted a few days ago.

Police say two backcountry skiers were caught in an avalanche east of Pemberton, B.C., Monday afternoon Police say one of the skiers suffered head and leg injuries in the avalanche. It is not clear if the second skier was injured.

Another news link

What about an ABS Bag? I've thought about one for snowmobiling.

I don't know much about them, other than what I have read. It sounds like they have helped in some cases, as have AvaLungs.

In general, I think anything that improves your odds of survival is probably a good thing. However, what I don't like to see is when people think a new peice of gear makes it OK to do dumber things. (I'm not accusing anyone on ETS forum of that, by the way. ) I try to view gear like beacons, AvaLungs, etc just like seat belts in my car. They are a back up in case I make a mistake or have bad luck, not an excuse to drive faster.

By the way, I'm sure you know this already, but when snowmobiling, make sure you cary your rescue gear (shovel and probe) on your person, not strapped to your machine. You don't want to find yourself lying on top of a slide, with your buddy buried, and you can't dig him out because your machine and rescue gear are also buried.

Have fun in the snow, but stay safe.

Here's some interesting reading in regard to avalanches and expert predictions:

http://www.edmontonjournal.com/news/mountain+snow+doesn+care+expert/6249053/story.html

A pretty good summary.

Locally, we see an increasing focus on education and training. It has been shown that following simple rules (example: Avalanche danger scale 4: Stay in slopes below 30 degrees would; scale 3: < 35 degrees; scale 2: < 40 degrees) really should have avoided about 80-90% of recent years avalanche fatalities (depending on what particular rule set you use.

The human factor is the most important factor to control. Any avalanche education that doesn't tell you in what way peer pressure and your personal motivation will change your danger assessment is a waste. If you want to go skiing you will look for clues that confirm the notion that conditions really aren't too bad today, anyway.

What I find interesting is the current development of new schemas for decision making for skiers. A fixed formula for making decision at pre-determined stages of the trip is part of the mix. The different factors (terrain, snow conditions, group composition and so on) are being assessed individually, and then summarized. This makes it less likely that confirmation bias (I'd LOVE to ski today) will make you ignore clues that indicate negative conditions for today's planned trip.

A valuable observation. The momentum of a group can drag you into situations you would normally shy away from (especially if operating solo).

Sadly, another avalanche fatality in today's paper. I would not speak ill of the dead, but I really have to wonder why they decided to go up in those conditions.

http://www.edmontonjournal.com/news/killed+avalanche/6261598/story.html

"A snowmobiler is dead after being buried in an avalanche Tuesday afternoon outside of Whistler, B.C.

Shawn Wilson of Blackcomb Snowmobile said the avalanche occurred on Powder Mountain just after 3 p.m. It covered a one-kilometre swath of land before sliding into Grizzly Lake, about 20 kilometres west of Whistler.

A witness said that the man was buried under at least one metre of snow for more than 20 minutes.

According to police, the man was part of a group of five snowmobiling in the area when two of the men — one being the victim — attempted to climb a steep slope, otherwise known as "highmarking," and triggered the avalanche.

Tuesday was a sunny day on the slopes with 30 centimetres of fresh powder in the last 48 hours."

Had a chance to get out in the back country for a few hours early this morning. It is scarily dangerous out in the mountains today and it seemed like every breath, every small sound or any sudden movement would trigger an avalanche even though we were safely away from any imminent avalanche threat. Needless to say, we kept to the wider valleys and away from any steep slopes etc.

Today, the Canadian Avalanche Centre issued an almost unprecedented in scope, special avalanche warning (another link) that literally covers over 100,000 square miles. In my lifetime and with a few decades of outdoor experience, I cannot recall a warning encompassing such a vast area.

To give a sense of scale, Prince George mentioned in the above link, is roughly 470 miles from the Canada/USA border and about 450 miles inland from the Pacific coast.

Needless to say, even with the warnings, people will still be out and I would not be surprised at all to see some deaths reported in the next few days...

You called it.

"A snowmobiler has been killed and five others have been injured after separate avalanches in B.C.'s backcountry Friday."

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2012/03/09/bc-avalanche-snowmobiler.html