Should you wear an avalanche beacon inbounds?

[Slim]

When I ski with my sister now, out west or in Europe, I like to say "We're almost at the bottom--just another one and a half Holiday Valleys to go." Nothing but good memories of the place though.

HAha,
I had the same thing mountainbiking in Austria once: I asked some locals: “Does the singletrack continue on from here or do we ride the gravel road out?” Their answer: “gravel road, you’re just about at the bottom anyway now”. Of course, that’s as still about 2 the height of our Duluth bikepark/ski hill ;-)

 

[Slim]

I guess it's a bit different here in Europe then it's over the ocean. All what I wrote, was meant for off-piste skiing.

This thread is specifically about wearing a beacon inbounds . No one (I hope) is debating wearing one out of bounds.

So yes, to be clear: “inbounds” in this sense means terrain that is patrolled and controlled for avalanche mitigation.

In North America that is the entire area within the ski area boundary. In Europe that only means the groomed pistes and controlled “ski routes” (meaning the ones marked on the resort map and one the ground with signs, not a ‘route’ published in a guidebook).

I find it best not to use the term “off-piste” in North America, since it is very unclear: it could mean ungroomed but controlled terrain or it could mean uncontrolled terrain outside the boundary.
Even in Europe it can be ambiguous: Is a mogul run “off-piste”? What about one of the above mentioned “ski-routes”?

Basically there are 2 aspects that those terms are meant to convey:
Surface condition: ie: groomed vs ungroomed
Safety condition: ie: patrolled and controlled vs uncontrolled and unpatrolled

The reason the term “off-piste” is confusing, yet widely used in Europe, is that the vast majority of terrain that is controlled is also groomed, and vice versa, so the term has come to have this double meaning.

This is why I suggest using the terms (even in Europe):
Groomed (groomer, etc)
Uncontrolled (slack-, side-, backcountry)

 

[Primoz]

@Slim I agree it can be confusing, especially if you are used to one or the other (in Europe in USA). In US you have, as you also wrote inbounds that's controlled, but that doesn't mean it's all groomed. I was refering with "off-piste" to terrain that is inbound but not groomed. For groomed I guess we can all agree that most of time/all the time avi equipment is overkill and not needed. But not groomed, even if inbound, is something that personally I would use avi equipment, as with that you can never be really sure it's totally safe, which my link about avi in Jackson hole (inbound) page or two back in this thread, proves right. But that's just my opinion, and it can be totally off (probably still not), as I'm a little bit paranoid about this sort of stuff. For Europe it's clear, as soon as you ski 1m out of groomed piste, you should have full avi equipment, but for US, I guess that's not the case.

 

[Slim]

For Europe it's clear, as soon as you ski 1m out of groomed piste, you should have full avi equipment.

Not always: Skiroutes*(as they are called in Austria) are NOT groomed, they are not called “pistes”, but are patrolled/controlled, just like ungroomed, inbounds terrain in North Amerika.

So if you are on a ski route in Austria, you are in the same situation, you don’t absolutely need the avy gear, but maybe you should? Which is the discussion here.

*Eine Skiroute ist eine Abfahrt, die durch den Pistendienst markiert und teilweise kontrolliert, aber nicht präpariert wird. Skirouten sind nicht in jedem Skigebiet zu finden, aber wenn es sie gibt, dann sind sie auf der Karte vermerkt. Skirouten können (wie jede Piste) geöffnet oder geschlossen sein.

 

[James]

Last March there was an avalanche in Verbier on one of the ski routes, the Vallon d'Arbi. That's quite a long route with a net at the start declaring it open ir closed. It's somewhat common for people to ski it when closed.
Apparently the day of the avalanche it was open. Four people were killed.

I didn't ski it last year when we were there a couple weeks before, but I've skied it probably a half dozen times, once twice in one day. Last late Feb it had rained up to 2000m and conditions there were very icy and terrible. The one person I know who did it said it was miserable and one in the party ended up getting stitches for an unarrested slide on the ice.

Here's a photo from the Guardian

The usual route is to ski down way to the photo's right. Then eventually you hit that traversing track you can see cutting across the middle of the avalanche.
The usual turn down from the traverse is either in the path of the avalanche or the next clearing to the left of the photo. I can't tell. Usually by that point you think the dangerous part is over.
I'm thinking the part we descend is the clearing past the avalanche as I remember trees above the path.

The scale of that photo is large. Somewhere in there is a stream that sharpley divides left and right. I've sort of gotten stuck in the middle once.

Once you ski down that clearing, it flattens out for a couple mile run to the lift at Tzoumaz.
If you've seen the film on Vimeo "Ten" by Guido Perrini, this route is mentioned as the guy in the sit ski beats the able bodied skiers down by quite a lot. Which is really saying something.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...ed-dead-after-swiss-avalanche-in-vallon-darbi

 

[Primoz]

Not always: Skiroutes*(as they are called in Austria) are NOT groomed, they are not called “pistes”, but are patrolled/controlled, just like ungroomed, inbounds terrain in North Amerika..

True, but these things are so rare, it's hardly worth mentioning In best case there's one or maybe 2 in resort, and they are skied in first 5min after lifts start, not to mention most of them are hardly any good for some fun skiing. But yes, they are controlled and as far as avi goes, almost as safe as groomers. So no real need for avi gear there.

 

[ADKmel]

if you own one why wouldn't you use it? I used to skydive and had an AAD Automatic Opening device. it would be foolish to not turn it on (just in case I needed it) Sadly I do know of skydiving deaths of experienced jumpers (3000 jumps+) that died because they didn't turn on their AAD!!!

if you got it use it!!

 

[James]

In terms of ski routes in Europe I can't speak to anywhere other than Verbier/4 Vallées and maybe Aiguille du Midi in Chamonix though I don't really know if they do any avy control at all. There's no pistes up there, but routes one takes by experience or with a guide.

Some of the ski routes in Verbier are extensively skied. Last season due to a low snow period when I was there one of those ski routes under the tram from Tortin had the longest mogul field I've ever seen.

Ski routes are in yellow. The map is incredibly inaccurate as a route map.

 

[ella_g]

They just released the official report of what happened in Jackson, it's pretty interesting reading ... but in terms of how it relates to this post, having been out that day and knowing the u14 kids and coach who were involved, having a beacon doesn't seem so crazy any more... Also, it was just a normal day, not a big powder day, people were complaining in the gondi line about a slightly delayed opening, etc etc.

At least 4 different groups totaling 16 skiers were traversing to get to untracked snow or had just starting descending when the slab avalanche released above them. Within seconds ski patrol received two calls and dispatched an initial search task force of 5 members. Two avalanche rescue dog teams were sent moments later. The team arrived on scene within 5 minutes and initiated dog, Recco, and transceiver searching. It was determined that 5 people had already been excavated by their group or nearby witnesses. All of them are considered partial burials but two of them are considered partial-critical, meaning their heads were buried but they had either a body part or equipment visible. Ski patrol continued rescue efforts given the potential of additional burials. Several witness reports indicated that one woman in a white jacket who was skiing alone had been seen just prior to the event, and was unaccounted for. Additional ski patrol members formed a probe line from the last seen point. Ski patrol terminated the Dog and Recco search at 10:40. The probe line was ended and the site was cleared at 11:20.

 

[PisteOff]

I bought BCA Tracker 2’s for @ChunderBlunder and myself, not only for our own safety, but so that we could render aid in the event of being present when one occurs. @ChunderBlunder is a member of the NSP now and is anxious to take his avy training. I’d like to do it myself.

 

[jmeb]

I bought BCA Tracker 2’s for @ChunderBlunder and myself, not only for our own safety, but so that we could render aid in the event of being present when one occurs. @ChunderBlunder is a member of the NSP now and is anxious to take his avy training. I’d like to do it myself.

AAIRE now offers a 1 day companion rescue class. You don’t need a Level 1 to take it, and it is designed for...well...rescue skills.