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Winter got off to an impressive start. Record amounts of snow and icy temperatures characterized this year's early winter in the Eastern Alps. But the avalanche danger in the area was also “great” on several days (level 4 on the five-part scale).
The Alpine Club is also expecting a high volume of tourers this season. An average of 22 people still die in avalanches every winter - in order to reduce this number, the Austrian Alpine Club has been committed to prevention and educational work for decades and offers five tips for a safe ski touring season.
1.) Avalanche update: Concentrated avalanche knowledge for winter sports enthusiasts
The “Avalanche Update”, the Alpine Club's successful lecture tour, provides a valuable theoretical knowledge base for the touring winter - also as a live stream on December 13.12.2023th, XNUMX. Mountain guide Michael Larcher highlights selected avalanche events from last winter and helps the audience sharpen their awareness of danger patterns and internalize basic safety measures. The second part of the lecture offers a lot of practical knowledge for ski tourers: How does the emergency equipment work, how does an avalanche check work, how do you efficiently search for buried people and where can you find the right courses to practice in the event of an avalanche? In order to deepen the content, the Alpine Club recommends the interactive eLearning courses “Ski Touring Standards: on Tour” and “Emergency Avalanche”, which are available free of charge through the Alpine Club Academy.
2.) Tips for ski tours
In contrast to secure ski areas, there are additional dangers lurking in open terrain that require responsible and risk-conscious action. Even simple tips can help reduce the risk of avalanches. “Everyone who is out and about in the open ski area should always have three questions in mind: How? What? Where?” says Michael Larcher, head of the mountain sports department at the Austrian Alpine Club.
- How dangerous is it today? What danger level does the avalanche situation report indicate?
- What is the avalanche problem today? Is it snowdrift, old snow, or something else?
- Where, at what altitude and direction of the slope are the danger spots?
“With these elementary questions and a decision-making tool like the “Stop or Go” method, I can then make well-founded decisions,” says Michael Larcher. Before your first ski tour you should also think about your equipment.
3.) Ski tour: emergency equipment
The obligatory avalanche transceiver training at the start of the season also includes a material check: the avalanche transceiver is equipped with fresh, high-quality batteries. We check that all locking mechanisms on the avalanche shovel are working properly. It often happens that the locking buttons are rusted and get stuck - simply clean them and grease them a little. The locking mechanism is also the weak point of the probe. After assembly, the closure must hold reliably and there must be no play in the probe segments.
In addition to emergency equipment such as a shovel/probe/LVS device, the Alpine Club recommends the use of airbag backpacks. Here Michael Larcher informs: “With this piece of equipment it is becoming increasingly clear that the future will be electric. The supercompensator is the technology that best serves the purpose”. In addition, a bivouac bag and a first aid kit always belong in the backpack. A ski service at the beginning of the season is also money well invested, because a good surface and sharp edges are certainly safety factors.
4.) Planning: New era on the horizon
In addition to functioning equipment and physical fitness, careful tour planning also plays a crucial role. In addition to the classic ski tour guides, apps such as alpenvereinaktiv.com are also increasingly being used, which offer a detailed tour description, a GPS track and photos for every ski tour. Very practical: the current situation report is displayed for the area. The new map layer “Avalanche Terrain Hazard Map” (ATHM) shows to what extent the terrain is conducive to the triggering of a slab avalanche by a winter sports athlete.
The website skitourenguru.ch offers a completely new dimension in planning ski tours. “The choice of tour is supported by an algorithm that takes both terrain-specific and snow-specific influencing factors into account in its calculations. This is the beginning of a new era in ski tour planning,” says Michael Larcher. The tool, which comes from Switzerland, now has 2.500 ski tours in Austria in its program and compares them daily with the latest information from the avalanche warning services and the digital elevation model. A risk indicator is calculated, which is then displayed in the symbol colors green/yellow/red.
5.) Alpine Club training program – off to the field!
Even more important than theoretical knowledge is practical practice in order to be able to react quickly and safely in an emergency. The Alpine Club Youth training program risk’n’fun accompanies young freeriders on their way from descents near the pistes to high alpine adventures. “Perceiving – assessing – deciding is the leitmotif,” says Daniela Tollinger, who is responsible for the overall management of risk’n’fun. “The focus is on improving personal freeride skills, such as the correct use of emergency equipment, but also understanding group processes or arguing for or against a descent in the open ski area.”
From January 3rd to 7th, the LOCALS DAYS have the motto “Show us where you are!” in Montafon, Kühtai, Fieberbrunn, on the Kitzsteinhorn and on the Mölltal Glacier on the tour plan. The offer is aimed specifically at young freeriders aged 10-16. There are currently still a few places available for the LEVEL 1 training courses (from 16 years old) in February.
With the RespectAmBerg campaign, the Alpine Club is trying to raise awareness of the fact that we as tourers are only guests in the terrain. Disturbing wildlife is an important issue; control measures to protect wild animals have so far only been installed in a few areas. The first track up the mountain after a fresh snowfall is very important here; this must be created carefully and with minimal risk.
