The Back Country Experience
This article focuses on the necessary knowledge, and gear required to travel safely through the backcountry. 
by Nigel Thompson

The inherent risks of backcountry travel need to be taken seriously. The rewards are tremendous, the mistakes can be unforgiving.

Crossing vast expanses of snow-covered ranges, climbing mountain passes and descending untracked basins with some-what graceful turns. Take-two...Blinding snow-laden wind covers the trail, sub-zero temperatures set -in, and in a fraction of an instance, a wave of snow raging down a slope envelops your group.

Traveling the backcountry by necessity requires an assortment of gear. To travel through waist deep snow one needs some type of device to stay above the surface. 

You will see people traveling with large surface snowshoes, variations of nordic/telemark skis, or heavy-metal (randonee equipment). These skis will have scaled surfaces, special wax jobs, or some-type of skin to enable the user to travel uphill. Poles with large baskets are used to help push the traveler uphill while breathable synthetic clothing keeps her dry and the fleece and down layers warm.

You may notice the travelers with large backpacks that undoubtedly contain additional clothing, down sleeping bag, food, stove and pot, spare parts for bindings, tools, straps, and invariable a large supply of duck tape. A waterproof bag, easily accessible in the pack, is their compass and topographic map. On the outside of the pack you will see a light-weight shovel, a bag containing telescoping poles for probing the snow or ski-poles that have similar capabilities.

What you may not see is that beneath their outer layers and down-jackets, close to the body where it can not be easily ripped away, is a small transmitter that silently and consistently sends out a radio signal, that through a similar device set to receive, sounds eerily like an electronic heartbeat.

This device is the avalanche beacon, the life-link between a buried backcountry traveller and her rescuers. This device also increases her chances of survial from 0 to 50%. 

What many people fail to realise is that all the gear in the world will not necessarily save your life from an avalanche burial or becoming lost. What will vastly increase your odds of having and eventless and enjoyable trip is knowledge. 

For instance, the buried traveller may have a 50% chance of survival, though if her companions are experienced (professionals) her chance of survival increases to 80%, and similarily, if her rescuers are novices (recreationalists) her chance of survial plummets to a dispairing 17%.

This highlights the disparity between having the gear and knowing how to use. It also is a reminder that you’re only as strong as your weakest link. If you’re experienced, take the time to educate and train your team members, if you’re a novice ask for help, others may reley on you to save their lives.


"Professionals are faster with transceivers, and therefore more likely to find thevictim alive (59%) than recreationalists (32%). Though a survival rate of only 59% may not sound encouraging, the buried victim found by professionals is almost twiceas likely (84%) to be found alive than the victim found by recreationalists.Professionals are 77% faster finding their companion than recreationalists."
-Atkins

The reasoning is that a professional will act faster in the event of an emergency, given that the majority of avalanche victims suffocate, time is of the essence. The other contributing factor is that a professional is properly equipped, where each member of the team has a shovel, tranciever, and probe poles and understands how to use them accurately and quickly.

The advent of trancievers has greatly increased your chance of survival from 0 to about 50 %. Unfortunately not all transievers are created equal. A recent study by the Swiss Federal Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research (SLF).

They concluded (field tests, laboratory tests. questionnaires) reveals Ortovox M1 as the best of the three newly developed units tested, followed by Tracker DTS, and with Arva 9000, with generally the worst grades, trailing at the end.