Big Mama Exposed

Comment Share Posted on Wednesday August 19th at 7:15 p.m. Tweet

The avalanche season is upon us with huge temperature differentials, increased sun radiation and the odd cold front contributing to significant to high avalanche danger throughout the country.

Eight, point release, wet slab releases were visable at Porters last weekend.  Cheeseman experienced two larger slides across the road which took the snowcover back to the gravel.  Porters was closed yesterday due to avalanche control work being carried out.  CV, BR and Cheeseman all closed runs this week for two reasons, public safety and that if the snow slides to ground it will be unlikely now that enough fresh snow will fall in those areas to see the spring out.

When Jonny Morgan was killed the avalanche hazard in the area was considerable.  When I was swept away in a class 3.5 avalanche at Ruapehu in 1994 the hazard was moderate. Don't think just because other poeple have skied the slope that it is safe. A snowboarder rode down the slope I was on befrcause we caused the slide.  For Jonny, I understand that it was the third run down that slope.

I watched with some vexation as a young presenter covering Jonny's death on TVOne said, "that the Mountain Safety Council had downgraded the hazard to Considerable so now it was safe to go out of bounds if you were properly prepared."  Yea Right!!

So the story is Check out Avalanche.net.nz (who provide this nifty image below) for the forcast. Do a course, or read a book about avalanche awareness. Carry a transceiver. Talk to patrol before going out of bounds. Going to that virgin slope safely takes a little planning when conditions a volitile.

The Backcountry "Must Do's" Checklist Must Do…

before you leave home:

• Attend an avalanche awareness course.
• Gather information from books, videos and websites.
• Plan your trip route, check weather and snow conditions on http://www.avalanche.net.nz/optmain_links.html
• Anticipate your actions. What you want to do often overrides your better judgement.

Must Do…when in the mountains:

• Check your surroundings for recent avalanche activity, changes in terrain, snowpack and weather.
• Learn to recognise avalanche terrain.
• Analyse the snowpack stability using recommended tests.
• Carry avalanche transceivers, probes and metal-blade shovels.
• Travel one at a time across potential avalanche slopes.

Let's be careful out there.