Davidof has already started skiing and i’m barely started on my read-up of books.

i’ve also been looking online for some good links to further my reading, but links away from the basic’s.
these ones have made it into my “avalanches favourites” so must be good, i’m sure i’ve been on other good sites.
PLEASE SHARE YOUR FAVOURITES!

basic tour planning:
http://www.mammut.ch/en/avalancherescue_mammutsafety_tourplaning.html

allsorts of info:
http://www.slf.ch/english_EN

avalanche review:
http://www.avalanche.org/~moonstone/TAR/tar.htm

glossary/enclylopedia:
http://www.fsavalanche.org/Encyclopedia.aspx

page full of links and articles:
http://www.avalanche-center.org/Education/resources/

guide to winter camping(good technical info on food, etc):
http://www.princeton.edu/~oa/winter/wintcamp.shtml#Avalanche%20Basics

Snow Stability and Avalanches (in my to read ‘pile’ ):
http://www.snowman-jim.org/papers/rambler.html

My favorite is the advice at the bottom of the 4th linked web page ...

“STAYING ALIVE IN AVALANCHE TERRAIN”, by Bruce Tremper - Buy Now

It’s a book, not a web page. But avalanche hazard is so complicated (and important) that it really requires a book-length treatment, written by someone who took the time to do a really good job (partly because he expected to be paid for his work from royalties from serious backcountry skiers buying his book).

Bruce Tremper has already gathered most of the individual good ideas from those web pages—and put them in a larger context which I’ve found very helpful.

Along with reading the book, need to take multi-day on-snow course—and then spends lots of days out skiing with very experienced very smart partners—to see how it’s really done by “regular” skiers working with the same kind of info you have.

Web pages are a stimulating supplement to that—but for me it helps if people who recommend a specific web page say what special point(s) it contributes which is different from what’s already in the Bruce Tremper book or other well-regarded standards.

Ken

Tremper is a good writer too which helps put over the material.

If you speak French (Eric maybe?) this is an online book:-
http://www.toraval.fr/livre/guide.php

Scottish Avalanche Center - reading material plus avalanche reports for the Highlands
http://www.sais.gov.uk/

“Evidence Of Heuristic Traps In Recreational Avalanche Accidents”
http://www.snowpit.com/articles/traps%20reprint.pdf

Another good one from McCammon

###, DRUGS AND THE WHITE DEATH:
LESSONS FOR AVALANCHE EDUCATORS FROM HEALTH AND SAFETY CAMPAIGNS
http://www.sunrockice.com/docs/###%20&%20drugs%20IM%202004.pdf

Ian McCammon’s “Heuristic Traps” article is very important (though perhaps more helpfully explained in a chapter of Bruce Tremper’s book written later). The more recent article by McCammon about avalanche education (S e x Drugs White Death) is intriguing but not directly relevant to most of us—still I liked it for the fresh perspective.

Funny thing about McCammon’s second article (S e x Drugs White Death) is that it repeatedly ignores one of the most striking findings about risk factors in the famous Heuristic Traps article (about party size). A risk factor that is repeatedly ignored in public plans for holiday trips, public stories about trips, and public analyses of avalanche accidents. Which raises the question, “How come reading a great article doesn’t change anything?”

I think it’s because lots of critical avalanche-risk decisions are made in a social context which is much bigger than the terrain or the skiing-group on a particular day: Things like “What kind of friends do I have?” + “What kind of ski holiday trip seems worthwhile to me?” + “What kinds of skiing are fun for me?”

It’s difficult for avalanche education to address those bigger things—and lotsa skiers do not want it to address those things—so it’s not so surprising that education has little impact on accident statistics.

Ken

The avalanche 5 Red Flags of Jeremy Jones, simple rules to avoid the worst…

If you read French, The ANENA (French Avalanche & Snow Association) has some interesting materials: http://www.anena.org/

Reminder: the start to the season is often treacherous, not much snow doesn’t mean no danger - not at all!

Hi all.

Can someone point me at some general info for the Alps (preferably through Switzerland up to Austria too). Eg what are the prevailing winds? Which regions are wet and which are dry? Maritime or continental (Tremper) terrain and snowpacks? Any peculiar local weather patterns to be aware of?

I’m halfway through Staying Alive… and some local background info would be great to complement it.

Yemble - 19 December 2009 04:31 PM

Hi all.

Can someone point me at some general info for the Alps (preferably through Switzerland up to Austria too). Eg what are the prevailing winds? Which regions are wet and which are dry? Maritime or continental (Tremper) terrain and snowpacks? Any peculiar local weather patterns to be aware of?

I’m halfway through Staying Alive… and some local background info would be great to complement it.

I had similar questions to you when I read Tremper’s book. I assume the Northern Alpes, Switzerland and Austria have a continental climate. In the Massif Central and French Alps the prevailing winds are westerlies. Normally the pre-alpes get the best snow with a somewhat drier climate in the interior ranges. However Italy and the border region with Italy (Mercantour, Briancon, Haute-Maurienne, Val d’Isere) get Mediteranean weather systems. If there are a lot of these then the border areas can benefit from both Atlantic and the Mediteranean weather systems to get double their fair share of snow (as happened last season).

We’ve suffered a lot from a southerly “foehn” wind (known as a Chinook in N.America). I wonder if this is related to global warming as they seem to get more and more frequent. Maybe energy being transfered from the warm equator?

Hi all-

I have been lurking on David’s site for a number of years. Now finally getting a login.

I want to shamelessly promote The Avalanche Review, which is the publication of the American Avalanche Association. You can find last years issues as pdfs at [url=http://www.americanavalancheassociation.org/publications]http://www.americanavalancheassociation.org/publications[/url].

We are working on going through old pdfs and sorting them by topic in order to be searched for and accessed by anyone.

Hi.

This is a very good website to further your knowledge on avalanches

http://www.getoffpiste.com

There is also an online talk that is very informative about how to have fun and be safe off piste.

http://www.henrysavalanchetalk.com/off_piste_shop.html