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Powder Journal
The Avy Club Concept | 11/18/2010, by JDubUtah
I recently stumbled across something very special – a group of experienced backcountry enthusiasts that have set out to cooperatively teach one another safe practices for travel in avalanche terrain. An avy club.
We met on a cold Thursday night in a park in Sandy, UT. After some brief introductions and a discussion of the goals of the group, we split up and practiced beacon searches. It was an amazing experience to learn experientially within a group with no clear instructor or guide. Through this shared experience, I gained a much better understanding of efficient and effective beacon use than I have in previous, more formal settings. This seemed to be a shared experience of everyone in the group.
The premise of an avy club is simple. It is a group of skiers and snowboarders that are ready to take ownership of their backcountry knowledge, skills, and practices. It is not an avalanche awareness course or a level 1 course, nor does it replace the need for this education. In an avy club setting, the group works collectively to increase knowledge through classroom sessions in living rooms and basements taught by the members themselves. Skills are developed through dedicated practice sessions both in and out of the mountains.
In some respects the avy club is like a backcountry book club. Everyone in the group is encouraged to purchase the same avalanche text (our group chose Bruce Tremper’s “Staying Alive in Avalanche Terrain”), and over the course of the season, group members take turns mastering and teaching each other the key points of the book. These teaching sessions are accompanied by trips outside to practice and learn crucial skills for risk assessment, safe travel, rescue, etc.
The avy club should prove to be an excellent means to reduce fatalities in the mountains, as it is a mechanism to reinforce good decision-making within groups. One of the most difficult and frustrating aspects of mountain sports is finding safe and knowledgeable partners, and further, finding partners that make good decisions in the mountains. The avy club is a great way to meet safe partners and develop groups with consistent perceptions of dangerous conditions. The avy club offers a forum for partners to discuss and critique their individual definitions of safe conditions with the emotion of 20” of fresh powder removed from the equation. If everyone in a group enters the mountains with a commitment to assess risks and clear definitions of go and no-go conditions, most accidents could be avoided.
Another benefit of the avy club concept is an overall increase in preparation for an accident. In the event that you or someone in your group is caught in a slide, the difference between an accident and a fatality comes down to preparation, time and luck. Time to extract a buried partner can be minimized through preparation, knowledge and practice. If you and every member of your party have learned and practiced effective rescue techniques, you will greatly increase the odds of survival in the event of an accident. Simple, yet critical, concepts and skill deficiencies become very clear within the avy club context. For example, for those of you that prefer analog beacons, how well are you familiar with turning off multiple brands of beacons? This is a nuance of multiple burial searches that I had not considered until standing out in the dark, freezing my ass off, trying to turn off a Pieps DSP so I could search for the next beacon in the drill. I recognize that is touched on in avy courses and texts, but how many of us have actually taken the time to turn different brands of beacons on and off?
The best way to stay safe in the mountains is to study, learn and practice every aspect of safe travel and choose partners that do the same. If an entire group operates under this auspice, the knowledge, skills and safety of the group as a whole will increase exponentially. And therein lies the beauty of an avy club. It is a group of people that care about their safety and the safety of their partners. I would encourage all of you to start your own group. Pick a book and teach it to one another. Go in the mountains together. Dig pits. Practice beacon searches. Learn everything you can about safe travel in the mountains and then travel more safely together.
That's Our Opinion. What's Yours?
Burton snowboards wrote on 11/19/10 at 05:23:15 am pst:
I love the concept of people working together, learning together, and not being so hung up on expensive ski lodges.
SnowHoeFoSho wrote on 11/19/10 at 10:43:47 am pst:
So secretive..."a group of experienced backcountry enthusiasts"... like who?
Waheenie wrote on 11/19/10 at 12:11:20 am pst:
@SnowHoeFoSho
I'm happy to connect you with the SLC avy club. Or let me know if you would like to start your own club! It's as simple as getting a group of friends together once a month and committing to learning/practicing avalanche safety skills.
powderjunky wrote on 11/19/10 at 3:17:19 pm pst:
Sounds awesome!
WarPigSinFin wrote on 11/19/10 at 4:43:10 pm pst:
@"Burton Snowboards": read the article a little more closely so your comment isn't so blatantly SPAMMY.
Great article about a great community and awareness building project.
Let's start a club here in JXN: who wants to join?
Friends of Berthoud Pass wrote on 12/09/10 at 08:09:43 am pst:
Friends of Berthoud Pass has, for the last 7 years, encouraged grassroots avalanche awareness and education just like these "avy clubs."
Check us out at http:berthoudpass.org and get involved in your community however you can.
D-Rock wrote on 12/09/10 at 11:03:03 am pst:
I want in. I have been trying to get a group of my friends in CO to do this with no luck. I guess I'm the only one who wants to be safe in the backcountry. I'm sure if there was a club or group we would all go. Is there one in CO?
powderjunky wrote on 12/09/10 at 11:09:13 am pst:
Where in Colorado are you?
D-Rock wrote on 12/09/10 at 11:30:23 am pst:
We all live in the Denver area. We ride a lot at Berthoud Pass. Some of us have Level 1. We all ride with full avy gear and beacons. We attend the Friends of Berthoud events. Looking for some more frequent hands on group training without the big $$$ for classes.
lowPro wrote on 12/10/10 at 10:20:18 am pst:
D-Rock, I'm in Winter Park, ride Berthoud pretty frequently and would be interested in helping you out. Friends of Berthoud
Pass definitely offers a lot of free education and group activity. Their instructors are all local and very knowledgeable. Otherwise, let's use this site to get a group together and see if we can make something happen.
lowPro wrote on 12/10/10 at 10:30:05 am pst:
Winter Storm warning for Northern CO. Heavy winds and decent accumulation expected! Be careful out there, as we've had several recent reports of slide activity in CO, especially at Berthoud Pass. CAIC reports considerable danger on most aspects and the recent accidents confirm that we have a dangerous mix of old and new snow layers to deal with. Pay attention and use caution when heading out.
Friends of Berthoud Pass wrote on 08/16/11 at 10:53:24 pm pst:
Ask and ye shall receive!
This season we're adding a whole new series of clinics for our members and for our instructors.
Member clinics will cover general awareness topics like weather and terrain. Instructor clinics will dig into advanced skills.
One more reason to get involved as a volunteer instructor. Stay tuned for details.
