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Alpine Touring: skis,
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Avalanche: transceivers,
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shovels,
tools.
Ski Touring: climbing
skins,
backpacks,
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poles.
Snowboard: snowboards,
snowshoes.
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Information: Maps
& Books, Videos.
For the ultimate backcountry skiing
adventure book a vacation in the perfect private powder at Ymir Yurts.
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The
best transceiver
is the one that you are familiar with and practice with consistently.
Every transceiver has its own little quirks and methodology required
for best results. Every time that you go touring you should practice
with your new touring partners, firstly it is great practice,
secondly you will get a good idea of who is avalanche savvy and
who is not. The digital beacons like Tracker
are easier for novices to use and require less time practising.
The Ortovox
or SOS require slightly more time to master and offer greater
range.
Participate in an avalanche
rescue scenario to get a glimpse of the myriad of issues
that can go wrong or take so much precious time. Some of the
issues that need to be addressed might include: safety to search,
leadership direction, size of slide, number of searchers, panic
levels, number of people buried, failure of rescue equipment,
depth of burial and first aid required once dug out....
Backcountry
shovels are an essential item for a number of purposes
in your day to day ski touring not just for emergency avalanche
rescue. Probably the most frequent use by experienced ski tourers
is to examine the snow layers by digging snow pits. A quick hasty
pit can be dug in a matter of minutes to check on suspect layers.
A good 2 meter snow pit is often dug to check out the entire
history of the snowpack including old surface hoar layers. Tests
upon the snow like the shovel shear test use the shovel to stress
the layers and possibly find layers undetected by visual clues.
Of course the shovel is also crucial in excavating the front
wall of Reutschblock pits or for constructing igloos, snow shelters
or tent platforms. Many of the shovels today include saws hidden
in the handles. This is the cheapest way of acquiring a snowsaw
- useful for igloo construction, or snow pit evaluations. Storing
the snowsaw blade within the handle of shovel is also a great
way of protecting the rest of your backpack.
Many people find the D grip handles
the easiest to use with mittens, although the T grip handle is
shorter and so fits in smaller backpacks. The aluminum bladed
shovels are not designed for prying as they will bend and break.
Shoveling must be done by cutting the block free and then lifting.
The easy stowage, and lightweight nature of all these shovels
make them ideal backcountry companions that should accompany
you on every ski tour long or short.The primary safety use of
the probe is to locate a body buried in a slide. The avalanche
transceiver can bring the rescuers very close to the victim
but to fine tune the search and minimize digging a probe is critical.
Probes
are also useful for gathering information such as snow depth,
wind loading, crusts, location of crevasses and for finding good
locations to dig snowpits. The quality of the probes produced
this year is light years better than those of five years ago.
The lower cost probes being excellent purchases
for the recreational users and the professionals and heavy duty
users will get satisfaction from the sturdiness reflected in
the more expensive models. Snow
study kits and their tools are useful to start your research
of snow metamorphis and try to unlock the mysteries of ever changing
nature of the snowpack and how that relates to stability.
The primary purpose of all these avalanche tools is avalanche
avoidance - we must never forget that. Use our tools in conjunction
with our brain, intuition and control those out-of-control powder
fiend desires. It takes lots of practice to fine tune an ability
to accurately estimate the avalanche stability by ourselves.
Remember to use all of the tools at our disposal - that includes
avalanche professionals, ski patrollers, avalanche reports, other
ski tourers, and our own observations. Most avalanche accidents
do not occur as an isolated incident. We must be able to use
our tools and then make valid decisions appropriate to the snowpack
and weather information. If you are looking to get practical
experience then consider our avalanche
awareness and winter leadership courses.
Further assistance always available
> Email
> Toll Free 1-888-488-(GEAR) 4327 |
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