Caution - Avalanches! - Tips on avalanche prevention

Joint press release by the 14 member associations of the Snow Sport Avalanche Accident Prevention core training team (KAT), 20.12.2016

The member associations of the Snow Sport Avalanche Accident Prevention core training team organise joint courses and provide tips on avalanche prevention. The latest issue of their leaflet entitled Caution – Avalanches! sums up and presents the latest snow science findings on a single sheet of paper.

Skiing and snowboarding tours, snowshoe hikes and off-piste activities are gaining in popularity. More and more sports enthusiasts and nature lovers find themselves drawn in winter to backcountry areas far away from the hustle and bustle of long-established ski runs. But apart from providing pleasure, snow also means avalanche hazards. Taking the right preventive measures is crucial for minimising the risks of being caught in an avalanche.

Working together to prevent avalanches

Accordingly, for the past 12 years, the SLF and 13 other Swiss organisations actively involved in snow sports have been working together in the Snow Sport Avalanche Accident Prevention core training team (KAT). These member associations provide information and training courses and produce documentation and leaflets highlighting the latest findings on avalanche prevention. The KAT also ensures that sufficient expert, properly qualified instruction in avalanche education is supplied by mountain sports associations and institutions and that recognised trainers with practical experience are available. This way, anyone attending a course organised by one of the KAT member associations can be sure of being taught the very latest broadly supported findings.

Avalanche hazard means mortal danger!

"Particularly in view of the mounting popularity of snow sports in backcountry terrain, it is essential to keep on developing and publicising avalanche prevention measures", says KAT leader Hans Martin Henny, the army's representative on the team. "So that is exactly what we are committed to doing.” After all, avalanches in Switzerland claim the lives of 23 people a year on average, by far the highest proportion of them being snow sports enthusiasts in backcountry terrain. Approximately 90 percent of all avalanche victims themselves triggered the avalanche that killed them. Nonetheless, despite the growing numbers of off-piste winter sports practitioners, the number of avalanche victims has actually fallen slightly since the 1980s. Having swifter and better equipped rescue teams has been a factor in this, but better training and preventive measures have probably also played a role.

Be well educated, informed and equipped

To ensure that even fewer people get caught in avalanches and that snow sport enthusiasts are maximally aware of the hazards they face, this winter the KAT's member associations are once again recommending that all backcountry tourers and freeriders:

1. learn how to behave properly in backcountry terrain, adapting to the prevailing conditions;
2. find out about current avalanche hazards;
3. are properly equipped (avalanche transceiver, shovel, snow probe).

To mark the start of this year's season, the associations are publishing a new, fully reworked version of their Caution – Avalanches! leaflet, containing the latest snow science findings, summed up on a single sheet of paper. The leaflet is aimed at avalanche instructors and backcountry tourers and freeriders with some previous knowledge.

Member associations of the Snow Sport Avalanche Accident Prevention core training team (KAT)

• Alpine Rescue Switzerland (ARS)
• Swiss Council for Accident Prevention (bfu)
• Federal Office of Sports (BASPO)
• Swiss Army (Swiss Centre of Excellence in Army Mountain Training (CAMT)
• Rescue Organisation of Canton of Valais (KWRO)
• Friends of Nature Switzerland (FNS)
• Swiss Alpine Club (SAC)
• Swiss Cableways (SBS)
• Association of Swiss Mountain Guides (ASMG)
• Swiss Snow Sports Professional and Education Association (SSBS)
• Suva
• Swiss Snowsports (SSSA)
• Swiss Ski
• WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research SLF

Snow Sport Avalanche Accident Prevention core training team (KAT):
Hans Martin Henny, Swiss Centre of Excellence in Army Mountain Training (CAMT), Andermatt,
HansMartin.Henny(at)vtg.admin.ch, Tel. +41 41 888 83 25