W
WARY
Well-known member
For the past 9 years we have been conducting avalanche testing of avalanche air bags in both large and very large avalanches in British Columbia and Nevada. One thing we have learned for certain is that avalanche air bags are going to become your next mandatory piece of winter mountain gear, and that if you don’t already own one or aren’t thinking of getting one then you are playing with your life as you ski, snowboard or snowmobile in avalanche country.
We manufacture one of the many avalanche air bags that are available, and each year we produce somewhere between 5 to 15 class 2 and 3 sized avalanches that take our equipment on sometimes mile long runs at near 100 miles an hour. We pick our slope by helicopter, lower the avalanche airbags onto the mountainside, and then use bombs to start the slide. Sometimes we will bomb a cornice and drop an entire mountaintop’s worth of snow onto the slope to start the avalanche, and the avalanche air bags (tethered to life sized crash test dummies and snowmobiles) are slammed into by Volkswagon sized chunks of snow traveling at high speed. Most of the time we drop our bombs right next to the avalanche air bags to imitate a skier or snowmobiler triggered slide. In both of these types of avalanches we can see the bright red avalanche air bags inside the avalanche most of the time, and they tend to ride out at the front of the avalanche. Anyone within ¾ of a mile of the avalanche can watch the avalanche air bags sliding down the entire mountain. Another tendency we often notice is that avalanche air bags invariably move to the sides or flanks of the avalanches as they slow to a stop, and we don’t usually find the bags out in the middle of the avalanche debris field.
Bottom line, unless the avalanche air bag is destroyed by a rock or a tree we always find the avalanche air bags either fully exposed or partially exposed on the surface of the snow.
Avalanche air bags are the next mandatory piece of winter mountain gear to go with your beacon, shovel and probe.
We manufacture one of the many avalanche air bags that are available, and each year we produce somewhere between 5 to 15 class 2 and 3 sized avalanches that take our equipment on sometimes mile long runs at near 100 miles an hour. We pick our slope by helicopter, lower the avalanche airbags onto the mountainside, and then use bombs to start the slide. Sometimes we will bomb a cornice and drop an entire mountaintop’s worth of snow onto the slope to start the avalanche, and the avalanche air bags (tethered to life sized crash test dummies and snowmobiles) are slammed into by Volkswagon sized chunks of snow traveling at high speed. Most of the time we drop our bombs right next to the avalanche air bags to imitate a skier or snowmobiler triggered slide. In both of these types of avalanches we can see the bright red avalanche air bags inside the avalanche most of the time, and they tend to ride out at the front of the avalanche. Anyone within ¾ of a mile of the avalanche can watch the avalanche air bags sliding down the entire mountain. Another tendency we often notice is that avalanche air bags invariably move to the sides or flanks of the avalanches as they slow to a stop, and we don’t usually find the bags out in the middle of the avalanche debris field.
Bottom line, unless the avalanche air bag is destroyed by a rock or a tree we always find the avalanche air bags either fully exposed or partially exposed on the surface of the snow.
Avalanche air bags are the next mandatory piece of winter mountain gear to go with your beacon, shovel and probe.
