ssues & ideas

EDITOR BRONWYN SCOTT

THE VOICE, THURSDAY, MARCH 7, 2013 7

Failing to heed the dan- gers of the backcountry almost cost one man his life

By BRENNA BROOKS

hrown down the mountain head- over-feet, caught in one of the most destructive forces on earth and buried in snow, Andrew Stickney was pulled out alive. He’s lucky to be able to share his story - and why he would do it all over again. Stickney, 18, was backcountry skiing with three others near Circlet Lake in Strathcona Provincial Park earlier this year. It was snowing heavily and Stick- ney was excited about his first ski of

the year. And then things took a turn for the worse.

He looked ahead to see his friends panicking at the sight of a fracture in the snow about 75 metres above him. Everything seemed to stop.

The rush of snow pushed the three others into the trees, but hit Stickney at the waist before piling over his head. The force sent him “down the moun- tain doing cartwheels,” he said in an email, until he was motionless and drowned in snow. He describes the feel- ing as being “suffocated yet peaceful.”

His friends dug him out, wrapped him with clothes and an emergency blanket when they found him. “With- out them with me, there is no way I would be here now,” he said. It was sev- eral hours before Search and Rescue got to them and had Stickney airlifted

Avalanches: One ofmatt

to the hospital.

The avalanche left him with a sepa- rated shoulder, bruised ribs and a bro- ken leg.

“Knowing that I would be able to see my family once again and see the girl that I loved made me the happiest guy possible,” Stickney said, in spite of his injuries.

“Tlived through it and moved on, and will be able to walk again soon and do the things that I love,” he said. The ex- perience was unforgettable and life- changing.

One danger of skiing out of bounds is being far from medical services. “Yowre no longer a quick snowmobile ride to a first-aid hut or even a drive down the mountain,” Stickney said. “In my case, if was 13 hours until I was lay- ing in a hospital bed and finally feeling

warmth again.”

Despite the endeavour, he said r4 that he would continue to take those risks because skiing is his “pride and joy in life.”

“Yes there are gonna be risks involved, yes, you might even be lucky enough to be in an avalanche like me,” Stickney said. “But I sur- vived that experience and I moved on happier than ever and with an awesome story to tell the ladies,” he said.

Despite Stickney’s near brush with death the thrill of backcoun- try skiing is too great to resist. He can’t wait to be able to get back on his skis, he said, and “stand right where that avalanche threw me off the cliff... and have as much fun out there as possible.”

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Yes there

are gonna be risks involved, yes you might even be lucky enough to beinan avalanche like me”

Andrew Stickney

Staying safe out of bounds

Understanding the risks and being prepared are the first steps to preventing disaster

By MARIE-ANDREE DEL CID

lanches every year. Using survival

gear and understanding ava- lanche terrain is key to staying alive when heading into the backcountry this winter.

Being prepared is the first step to en- suring personal safety.

“It is important to take a safety course and the one we recommend is the Avalanche Skills Training Level 1,” said the Canadian Avalanche Centre’s Grant Helgeson.

The centre is a non-profit organiza- tion that provides public avalanche in- formation. It also sets the criteria for avalanche skills training courses.

“That’s where you start, which helps a person grasp the basics and the ter- minology which we use in our bulletin about safety measures,” said Helgeson.

“When you go into the backcountry you need to have the gear and under- stand how to use them which is why we provide AST courses.”

If a person gets caught in an ava- lanche, “fight and try to get to the sur- face,” he said. “If you can remain on your skis or snowboard you want to try and steep down off to the side picking up that 45-degree tangent and try to get off the [dangerous path].” If you lose control and are moving down the slope, the best thing is to remove your skis or board because they will drag you down and underneath the snow, Helgeson said.

Sales associates at Mountain Equip- ment Co-op recommend taking safety tools like a beacon, avalanche probe and shovel as a precaution.

Beacons are small detectors that help locate buried victims. An ava- lanche probe is a long, retractable pole used to penetrate compacted avalanche debris.

0: average 14 Canadians die in ava-

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Experienced skier Glenn Langen acknowledges a sign that restricts access to dangerous terrain at Whistler on Sunday.

JACQUELINE LANGEN photo

The science behind the risks: knowledge Is power

One of the most dangerous aspects of avalanches is that they can happen at any time

By JACQUELINE LANGEN

alpine conditions can make the difference between life and death for backcountry adventurers.

Avalanches are complex and often unpredictable. Most alpine snow is made up of 10 per cent ice and 90 per cent air, making it very unstable.

The amount of new snow, wind direc- tion and slope angle are all factors that make an avalanche more likely, said U.S. avalanche scientist Karl Birkeland.

Avalanches can happen at anytime, but their likelihood and severity de- pends on varying combinations of tem- perature, general snowpack condi-

B:: able to recognize dangerous

tions, terrain and vegetation.

“Avalanche conditions are quite vari- able, this is what makes them so dan- gerous,” said Langara geography in- structor Rory Crowley.

In North America there are five lev- els of danger: low, moderate, consider- able, high and extreme.

Even experienced backcountry us- ers can be caught in an avalanche by failing to consider all of the factors that cause dangerous conditions.

An area may be rated as an extreme risk zone but still appear deceptively safe to even experienced backcountry skiers, said Birkeland. “That is be- cause with those conditions the chanc- es of human triggered-avalanches are

probable, people are less likely to see obvious signs of instability,” he said.

The chances of surviving an ava- lanche are relatively high, at 86 per cent, according to the Canadian Ava- lanche Centre website. However, the likelihood of survival varies in relation to the size of the avalanche, the vic- tim’s ability to remain near the surface, terrain type, rescue response and luck.

“When someone gets caught in an avalanche, you want to keep your eyes on him. If he gets buried, everyone should immediately convene, take a roll call, determine who is missing and create a plan of action. An organized search is key,” said Canada Snowboard employee Martin Faubert.

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1 Since 1970, 455 people have died from 295 separate avalanches in Canada

2 Most avalanche accidents happen between noon and 2:00 p.m.

3 From 1987 to 2007 the average num- ber of avalanche fatalities was 11. The average has

increased to 14 from 1998 to 2007.