EHRINGER: Deep powder can lead to deep trouble

By Gavin Ehringer, Special to the Rocky

Published February 26, 2008 at 12:45 a.m.

Text size

More Outdoors Columns & Blogs

This winter's heavy and consistent snowfall - combined with often below-freezing temperatures - has resulted in some of the best powder I have seen in a decade.

Recently, I visited Breckenridge, which had received more than eight inches of fresh powder the night before. It was the proverbial "perfect day," the one that your buddies tell you about when you are stuck at home with a cold or you can't skip out on work on a Friday to join your pals on the slopes.

I love powder, but I also have a healthy respect for the stuff. Going off-trail or even just off the groomed runs on a deep powder day can get a person into serious trouble.

For example, one exceptionally deep powder day at Wolf Creek, I dropped into a gully and took a tumble. Before I knew it, my head was 3 feet deep in the snow and I could not breathe. Panicked, I beat my hands as though I were swimming and tried to clear an air space. But the snow kept slumping down on top of me.

Finally, I poked my head out of the snow and managed to fill my lungs. But for a few scary moments, I felt like I was caught in quicksand.

While backcountry skiers and boarders fear avalanches, it is seldom that we recognize that powder snow can be dangerous, too. Skiers and snowboarders have perished because of asphyxiation after being buried in just a few feet of loose snow. With precautions, you can avoid such a horrific outcome.

First, stick to groomed intermediate runs until you have powder-riding skills. A compacted base underneath a few inches or even a foot of powder snow is a lot more manageable than finding yourself in bottomless powder. You need to learn to make easy, controlled turns in powder and to keep your nose up and float over the snow before you are ready to tackle knee-deep or waist-deep powder conditions.

Also, you need to be able to form a solid platform of snow underneath you so that you can stand up after a fall. These skills are best learned when you have a firm base underneath the powder.

Oftentimes, the best powder is found in the forests. Glades tend to be less skied and tracked out, so they hold on to powder for days after a snowstorm.

To make tracks in the trees, you need to keep safe. First, pick areas where the trees are widely spaced.

Never venture into the trees without a buddy, and always stay within verbal and visual range of your partner. That way, if you should fall and get buried, your partner will be there to dig you out.

If your friend should fall and get buried, don't leave him to get the ski patrol. You need to act immediately to clear an airspace and dig him out of the snow.

How much time do you have? Well, hold your breath while you are reading this and that will give you a good measure. When the time expires, so does your buddy, so be prepared to lend assistance immediately.

Dig with the hands or use your board as a shovel to clear snow as rapidly as possible.

Trees present a hazard in more ways than one. Often, a deep well will form around the base of a tree. This well will draw the rider in and make it difficult to get the head and body above the snow. If you should fall into the well, use the tree trunk to help you pull yourself up and out of danger.

If you do get buried in the snow, don't panic. Flailing will often result in the snow simply closing in around you. Instead, push your hands up to your chest as if praying, then spread them in front of the face and clear an airspace. Once the snow settles, you can rock your body back and forth. Your body heat will help compact the snow around you and also create more airspace to move about.

Your board can both help and hinder your self-rescue. A board can anchor your feet underneath the snow and hold you down. Unfortunately, the quick-release bindings that allowed riders to get loose from their boards have fallen out of fashion.

Trying to free yourself from conventional strap-in bindings will likely prove impossible if you find yourself buried. Instead, try to bring your knees up toward your chest and get the board underneath your body.

From there, you should be able to compact the snow underneath the board and use it as a platform to stand up.

While fatalities caused by falls in powder snow are indeed few, knowing what to do in the event of a fall could save your life. So, be prepared.

Gavin Ehringer has covered snowboarding for the Rocky Mountain News for 15 years.

Subscribe to the Rocky Mountain News