Backcountry Avalanche Awareness

Backcountry travel in the mountains involves risk, sometimes avalanche risk. Reading Backcountry Avalanche Awareness will help you to reduce your risk level by learning proven techniques for surviving in the backcountry and understanding avalanches their terrain.

Backcountry Avalanche Awareness is a book geared towards beginners and intermediate level backcountry adventurers who ski, hike or snowshoers. Backcountry Avalanche Awareness was written by Bruce Jamieson who has worked with avalanches for over 23 years in avalanche control, forecasting, teaching, research and consulting. He is a past president of the Canadian Avalanche Association. The information contained within this book deal with the following topics:

• Avalanches and their characteristics
• Avalanche terrain and how to recognize avalanche danger
• Mountain snowpack
• Identification of snow types
• Major points of avalanche danger
• Field tests and observations for recognizing unstable snow
• Avalanche danger ratings
• Phone numbers for current avalanche conditions
• Travel preparation for winter conditions
• How to conduct various search and rescue missions