If you are not a member of the CAIC and not receiving Avalanche reports from the CAIC you should never venture outside the boundaries of any ski area. (You should probably never venture outside the Front Range!)
Membership in the CAIC for a year is cheap! Figure out what your life is worth and send them a percentage of that value. While you are at the website, sign up for the CAIC newsletter.
Here is an example of the information the CAIC provides:
There are a few ingredients necessary for an avalanche. The first is a slope steep enough to slide. Most avalanches start on slopes steeper than 30 degrees, in the range of black diamond ski runs. Slopes that steep are often the first to fill in as snow drifts into gullies and below ridges. Permanent snowfields are usually sufficiently steep, too.
The next ingredient is a layer of strong over weak snow. This is relative strength, so the strong snow can appear quite soft. It just needs to bond together more than underlying snow. One of the best mechanisms for making strong snow is drifting from wind. The areas with snow deep enough to ride are most likely drifted and have the greatest potential for strong over weak layering.
Weak snow is easy to find in the early season. Thin, shallow snow facets rapidly. Faceted snow consists of big sugary grains that are poorly bonded. You can find the biggest, weakest facets are nearest the ground.
Permanent snowfields, at first glance, have weak over strong layering. They are not avalanche immune because a thin layer of very weak snow tends to form at the base of the recent snow. The old, strong snow is often icy and slick, a perfect surface for fast-running avalanches. The icy old snow makes it hard for a rider tumbling in an avalanche to self-arrest or slow down, and high-speed falls result.
The final ingredient is a trigger to break the weaker snow. A rider makes a very good trigger, overloading the weak snow and causing an avalanche. The stronger slab fractures and flows downhill around the rider. Early season avalanches tend to be small, but tumble a rider over rocks and stumps and cause lots of injuries.
We need to brush up on our avalanche skills as part of our pre-season training. Flip through your favorite avalanche books, or check out some of the online tutorials. Beacon practice is a great way to pass a gray afternoon. Your avalanche gear deserves the same attention you lavish on your skis, board, or sled.
Seriously, sign up, give them some money, take a course, and buy a beacon, shovel and probe and ski so you never have to use any of them!
What do you think? Leave a comment.
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