Hi All,

My name is George, I work as an design engineer for a New Zealand based product design consultancy, idesign solutions Ltd.

We have recently initiated a project to bring to market a tool that will aid in the analysis of a snow base for avalanche risk. Our motivation for this project is to provide snow enthusiasts with a tool to collect more consistent and precise data so that the decision making process can be based on accurate results. We believe there is a need for a tool that encourages more frequent testing by reducing the sampling time and effort involved; therefore less assumption and safer riding!

It should be made clear that this project is not about reducing the need for extreme caution in the backcountry. We encourage and advise taking avalanches courses to continually improve your knowledge of the alpine environment and associated avalanche risk. This product will not replace current assessment methods but aims to allow for a more informed decision making process.

For this project to be a success we rely on your knowledge and experience to determine what this “tool or System” will be and how it will function etc. If you share an interest in this topic and would like to contribute to the development process please take the survey using the link below: This shouldn’t take more than 15 minutes to complete. We value your time and input.

SURVEY LINK: http://www.surveygizmo.com/s3/432864/Avalanche-Risk-Assessment-Survey

Hi,

Thanks for posting the link I’m just going through the survey

> The number of avalanche fatalities is steadily rising with more and more people venturing to the backcountry each year.

There is a slight rise in France, and certainly since 1990 a rise in the number of recreationists affected compared to “civilian” victims (people on roads, habitation) but I wouldn’t over dramatize things. Relative to the number of practicants the number of fatalities is decreasing (more effective search and rescue, better medical treatment etc).

The main thing we can’t do today is say whether a given slope will slide, all we know is that on any particular day what types of slopes are likely to present an avalanche risk. The danger is that 99/100 they don’t slide so you can become accustomed to pushing things until the day you get unlucky. I’m not sure what kind of tool would give us this knowledge.

Hi,

Cheers for the feedback, its great hearing peoples opinions regarding backcountry safety. There is definitely a growing taste for the back country and the obvious outcome is going to be a rise in fatallities simply due to numbers. In this case education is paramount to increasing the awareness of avalanche danger.

From the data we are getting back there are a number of approaches we could take and each would appeal to a niche market within our target user group, that being backcountry enthusiasts/ professionals and resort managers. Because we are in the research phase we are not bound by any means to design a tool as such. For example our outcome maybe a system for educational purposes or perhaps a standardised data sharing site that gives users better access to up-to-date weather reports, recent av activity and snow structure. It is early days yet and we want to make sure a decision is made that is based on a market need and not our personal opinions.

At the moment our ideas are based around a system/tool that can standardise data and will compliment the current methods and risk assessment standards. We have been getting some really positive info from the survey which will help clarify a direction for the project. At the end of the day the decision to ride has to come from the user, if we can help improve that decision making process then we will have a project potentially worth investing in.

Thanks again for your post, we appreciate your comments.