Tahoe Area Avalanche Claims Eight Lives; One Missing

[takeahike46er]

The thing that really increases survival is not getting caught in an avalanche.

Bingo!

I’ve never skied with an airbag. Towards the end of my heavy B.C. ski career I just couldn’t justify the cost so I decided that if I had any doubt or concerns I’d turn back around.

Same. No one I tour with from my local mountaineering club skis with airbags. Granted, if we were regularly skiing big lines in the Spearhead or the Duffey we would likely use them, but they’re not standard equipment for tours where terrain selection is conservative. I can’t even fathom bringing one on a multi-day hut trip where the gear list is already extensive and sometimes includes gear for glacier travel.

 

[thetrailboss]

I looked at some of the pics from the initial investigation. Hard to believe that the snow ran right through those trees and took these lives, but it did. Crazy.

 

[Zermatt]

I looked at some of the pics from the initial investigation. Hard to believe that the snow ran right through those trees and took these lives, but it did. Crazy.

Trees only provide protection if they are too thick to ski through. That’s avalanche training 101.

Air bags would only provide protection if you had a chance to travel with and float to the top of a moving avalanche. If everyone was sitting at the bottom of an avalanche slope and got blindsided by a slide air bags wouldn’t have done anything.

 

[raisingarizona]

Bingo!



Same. No one I tour with from my local mountaineering club skis with airbags. Granted, if we were regularly skiing big lines in the Spearhead or the Duffey we would likely use them, but they’re not standard equipment for tours where terrain selection is conservative. I can’t even fathom bringing one on a multi-day hut trip where the gear list is already extensive and sometimes includes gear for glacier travel.

Totally. As I got older my decisions and goals became much more conservative unless I was 100% sure of what I was skiing and I started to really value going as light as I could. I was bc skiing 20 something years before airbags were introduced so I never felt that they were an imperative part of a touring kit. If I were trying to push the limits and be that "rad" guy like I did in my young/mid twenties today? Oh f yeah I'd have one.