Video of an Avalanche Airbag in action - and a lucky lady boarder

Your best chance of surviving an avalanche will always be to avoid being in one in the first place, but when the worst happens an airbag does appear to help...

This avalanche airbag footage was caught on January 25th, 2012 in the Snake River backcountry near Montezuma, Colo. It features pro snowboarder Meesh Hytner getting caught in an avalanche and staying on top after deploying her BCA Float 30 avalanche airbag.

Video courtesy of BCA

While airbags can be extremely effective in preventing avalanche burial, they are no substitute for education and good judgment.

As there has been some debate about the video, we also quote BCA co-owner Bruce Edgerly :-

We're sorry it appears we set this whole thing up and are exploiting it to the max. Our company is truly dedicated to saving lives, not just pumping products. We really had nothing to do with making this footage and we believe this event was irresponsible. We have always supported education as the #1 priority in the backcountry. An airbag cannot make up for poor judgment.

Your best defence against avalanches is education; the following links are great starting points :-

Avalanche Safety on Pistehors
BCA's avalanche education pages
European Avalanche Warning Services
Henry's Avalanche Talk

And more about pro snowboarder Meesh Hytner.

It has been around for a while and there were debates both on TGR and Youtube about this accident. While the bag is a good equipment, people should buy it to carry on the days when they should be in backcountry not on the days that they shouldn't - because they really should be somewhere else then. There was another avalanche in States this weekend that claimed lives of 3. One skier (female) had a bag and survived. But just because the bag worked as designed shouldn't let us forget the fact that this group (experienced and trained apparently)ignored the red flags that were there. Whether the airbag will be efficient or not will depend on many factors - run-outs, depth of the slide. The bag itself may be punctured and become no more useful than a piece of rug. Meesh when taklking about her "calculated risks" that she had taken doesn't talk much sense and sends a wrong message. This is not how risks must be calculated, not in the context of avalanche safety. When risks are calculated people don't end up being swept by avalanches. having to use your safety equipment means nothing but a poor judjment. She's lucky to be alive IMHO.

verbier_ski_bum wrote:...some very sound stuff...

Absolutely agree; if you trigger an avalanche then your assessment failed and you should go back and reset your thinking.

Here's an news video on the Washington avalanche and interview with the air bag user. Near the end of the interview she talks about the risk that day.

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/hl-60039979/nbc_today_show_avalanche_survivor_in_shock_after_3_die_in_tragedy/

Apart from the statements already made-which I agree with btw, you are still running the risk of breaking bones whether you have a bag or not so still very serious and certainly should not be taken as a "risk is high today, so I'll just stick my airbag on"

There is a rather feisty debate ATM on Scottish forums because Nevis range want to change the grading of the back Corries to orange marked off piste trials instead of red/black runs. For example last weekend there were over 30people in the Corries, with less than a third carrying a rucksack-ie no shovel or probe and most likely no transceiver
I'm all for it-keep it safe, use it only if you know the risks, can assess it and have he equipment

Trencher wrote:Here's an news video on the Washington avalanche and interview with the air bag user. Near the end of the interview she talks about the risk that day.

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/hl-60039979/nbc_today_show_avalanche_survivor_in_shock_after_3_die_in_tragedy/

Unfortunately video is not available in Switzerland. I read a few accounts of the accident and from what I gathered it was a high risk day, and that place avalanched a year ago killing a snowboarder, it didn't have any shelter, only trees which are not the best on case the slide is big enough, avalanches in the area have a history of occuring the day after the storm, and the storm was a day before this accident with high winds and about half a meter of new powder. All red flags. It is interesting to hear what she says about their risk assessment but on the other hand with three members of her group dead she won't be able to say much. Probably something along the lines of taken calculated risks, training, equipment, experience etc. But in my training it says to obey red flags, because avalanche doesn't care about equipment and experience. Unless the standards of training differ dramatically, this group didn'tt seem to follow what they were taught in North America. Report says that they were following safety protocol, but I can't see it making any difference. Just because you know the protocol for backcountry skiing doesn't mean that you should go and ski certain slopes on high-avy days. Protocol is there to follow on normal days since there is always some risk present. No matter how experienced they were, some poor judgement made them no better than newbies. If you choose to disregard the red flags you might as well be unaware about them - result is likely to be the same. Because the avalanche doesn't care.