For any of us here that venture out in avalanche country on a regular basis, watching and especially hearing this video is a sobering experience of what it would be like to almost die from being buried in an avalanche. The video runs just over 8 minutes but is compelling to both watch and hear the complete video through...

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=944_1263723911

Pretty sobering.

I have no experience with that kind of snow, but it looks to me like he was very lucky to be skiing in a group and that they all had pack shovels to dig him out.

Seen it before, but always worth watching.

All the more scary when you realize that was a very shallow avvy. You could still see light. If he had been deeply buried, it would have been total darkness, and he would have been that much harder to find and that much harder to dig out.

Note also that there were no apparent debris in the snow. Trees and such often get sucked into avvies. Guess what happens when you and a tree collide mid-avalanche.

I suppose the first order of business is to learn how to read snow and to tell if an avvy is threatening as well as to pay attention to any avalanche center forecasts.

If you're traversing an avvy chute, one person goes at a time while the other members watch. If an avvy occurs, keep your eye on the person. Where you see them last is where you generally should start searching.

This group was well prepared and had shovels along. Telescoping probes are a good idea too. A person buried won't always be this close to the surface.

HJ

Luck has nothing to do with it. Avalanche beacons, probes and showels are - or should be - considered standard equipment for anyone who wants to explore the joys of snow covered terrain steeper than 30 degrees.

I do not have all that much sympathy for those who deliberately try to cheat death. You are not always going to win.

Some skiers are highly irresponsible and flat out ignore the avalanche danger when skiing conditions are tempting.

Others are very knowledgeable and will make every precaution nescessary to reduce the risks to an acceptable level.

From the video I can't tell which group this skier belongs to. But aparently they had the last layer of defense in order (go down one at the time, always bring avalanche beacons, showels, probe).

The other layers include pre-trip planning, heed the avalanche forecasts and continuous assessment of the dangers throughout the trip, as well as choosing the optimum track down the slope. Even if you do everything right there is no guarantee you won't get caught - it's just about reducing risks to an acceptable level.

Yep.

The only other option is to just stay home -- but a sedentary lifestyle has risks too.

HJ