0
0
Share with your friends










Submit
  • Home
  • About
  • Advertising
  • Privacy
  • Property
  • Contact
  • Sitemap

Logo

Navigation
  • Ski Resorts
  • Where to Ski
  • How to Ski
  • Snow
    • Snow Report
  • Gear
    • Ski Clothing
    • Ski Equipment
  • Family Skiing
  • Ski Holidays
  • Deals
  • Summer

Avalanche Airbag Rucksacks: Why Off-Piste Skiers Need Them

By Sean Newsom | on April 16, 2012 | 0 Comment
Classic Ski Equipment Ski Equipment
Avalanche airbag rucksacks | Welove2ski

Left: the Snowpulse Prorider 15. Right: the ABS Airbags Vario base unit. Both at snowandrock.com.

Avalanche airbag rucksacks are a simple but effective idea. If you get caught in an avalanche, you pull a ripcord, and out bursts an airbag (or two) from your pack – helping you to stay buoyant on the surface of the snow as you’re swept down the mountain.

If you don’t have an airbag, and you’re caught in an avalanche, you’re much more likely to tumble down into the snow, and stay there. And that’s usually where the problems start.

For a start, you won’t be able to move. Avalanche snow sets heavy and hard when it stops, and can weigh an astonishing 500kg per cubic metre. Obviously, you won’t be visible to rescuers either – and even if you and your party are all wearing avalanche transceivers, you’ll be utterly dependent on whether or not the rest of the group is unhurt and thinking clearly.

Worst of all, you’ll have a limited air supply. Often the snow around you contains oxygen, but you’ll use it up quickly. The statistics are hair-raising. In the first 15 minutes your chances of survival are 95% – but they fall away sharply after that, down to less than 30% in 45 minutes (see pistehors.com). Asphyxiation is the usual cause of death (see CMAJ).

Given these factors, anything that helps to keep you on or close to the surface is worth having. In fact, research by the Swiss Avalanche Institute in Davos suggests that avalanche airbag rucksacks, properly activated, can increase their users’ of survival eightfold. It’s no wonder that many mountain guides now wear them as a matter of course. All the guides at Piste to Powder in St Anton do, for example (Graham Austick, the school’s founder, has worn one for eight years). So too the guides who run the excellent Snow and Avalanche Awareness Camps (SAAC) in the Tirol.

The two main competing brands are ABS and Snowpulse. ABS uses two airbags, which inflate out of the side of the rucksack, and Snowpulse one, which inflates round the back of your neck and over your shoulders. Here’s how the two systems work, Snowpulse first, then ABS.

Advertisement

The only stumbling block is deciding which system to buy. Welove2ski asked Klaus Kranebitter, a UIAGM mountain guide with SAAC to outline the pros and cons of both systems. These are his thoughts.

“ABS
Advantage 1: if one airbag pops on a rock, you have a second one. But this is not very likely.
Advantage 2: while still riding the avalanche with open airbags, you can move your head left/right to stay orientated.

Snowpulse
Advantage 1: your head and neck stays protected during the ride in the avalanche.
Advantage 2: if you do get buried with your head in the snow, the chamber looses gas within a few minutes and creates a breathing cave around your face.”

The key thing, however, is not to prevaricate. The evidence seems overwhelming. BUY ONE.

For information on airline policies on carrying avalanche airbag systems, check out this thread on Snowheads, and this feature at Wildsnow.com.

Also see our feature on keeping safe on the mountain.

Share this story:
  • tweet

Tags: Ski Equipment

Recent Posts

  • Morzine – For Skiing and Non-Skiing

    March 8, 2023 - 0 Comment
  • Six Reasons We Love Going to St Anton by Train

    February 1, 2023 - 0 Comment
  • 7 of the Best Wines to Sip on A Dolomites Ski Trip

    January 24, 2023 - 1 Comment

Related Posts

  • Looking Good: The Definitive Guide to Ski Goggles

    February 25, 2022 - 4 Comments
  • Elan Skis Breakthrough

    February 2, 2021 - 3 Comments
  • The Best Bags for Skiing: A Comprehensive Guide

    November 2, 2020 - 1 Comment

Author Description

Sean Newsom

As well as founding Welove2ski in June 2007, Sean has written about skiing and snowboarding in the British press for 28 years. For the last 20 of them, he’s also been the ski travel editor at The Sunday Times.

No Responses to “Avalanche Airbag Rucksacks: Why Off-Piste Skiers Need Them”

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Free Updates

Join 16,000 clever people who get the latest Welove2ski content delivered to their inbox

RSSSubscribe 15167 Followers 10135 Fans

The Loveometer

Zermatt: Cool Chalets, Certain Snow and The Majestic Matterhorn
100 %
Tweenager Tips: How to Enjoy Ski Holidays with Older Kids
98 %
How to Go Green On Your Ski Holiday
98 %
St Anton, Austria: Wild Nights, Steep Pistes and Challenging Backcountry
97 %
Weird and Wonderful Ski Fads and Fashions
94 %
  • Home
  • About
  • Advertising
  • Privacy
  • Property
  • Contact
  • Sitemap
© 2020. All Rights Reserved. Created with love by WL2S