Avalanche Rescue? There's NOT an app for that...

How to survive an avalanche? Don't get into one.

Interview with Jill Fredston

(Eptstein, 2021)

Illustration by Slate Magazine 2021

https://slate.com/human-interest/2021/04/how-to-survive-an-avalanche-tips-from-expert-jill-fredston.html

Out of bounds (an article from ABC News, Australia (2021 link))

Avalanches? In Australia? They are real and they can be deadly. But a group of back-country adventurers is trying to keep skiers, boarders and bushwalkers safe when they head out into the alpine wilderness. 

The Canadian Avalanche Centre "Avalanche Canada" gear recommendation:  https://www.avalanche.ca/gear

The BCA Tracker2 Avalanche Transceiver on epictv.com

"The Tracker2 avalanche transceiver is used to quickly locate avalanche victims and is required equipment for ski touring and backcountry skiing. The Tracker 2 is one of the fastest and most precise pinpointing transceivers on the market. It features triple receive antenna, instantaneous real-time display, and the same easy-to-use interface as the Tracker DTS. A mechanical search/transmit switch is super intuitive making it easy to use right “out of the box.” Includes multiple burial indicator lights and Special Mode.

Galileo-LawinenFon turns a smartphone into an avalanche transceiver (2014 link).

"(in 2013...) the Canadian Avalanche Centre (CAC) issued a warning about the dangers of relying on smartphone apps that were being marketed as economical alternatives to avalanche transceivers. But a new smartphone app and add-on hardware component could provide an alternative that is not only cheaper than dedicated avalanche transceivers, but also provides additional functionality.

On misguided attempts to replace avalanche rescue beacons with one of a growing number of smartphone apps (2013, link).

"Some people may be tempted to save a couple hundred dollars on an avalanche beacon and opt for one of several apps on the market. The Canadian Avalanche Centre does not recommend using these apps for actual avalanche incidents, however. It assessed three European apps – iSis Intelligent (Mountain) Rescue System, Snøg Avalanche Buddy and SnoWhere – before coming to the conclusion that they are unreliable and promote a false sense of security.

Avalanche airbags now offer wireless remote activation (2010, link).

"ABS has introduced a world-first - a remote, networked electronic system which allows airbag inflation to be triggered by other members of a skiing party, allowing them to help each other in an emergency.

This tracking system promises faster help for avalanche victims (2007, link).

"A new positioning system which will use Galileo, the future European global positioning satellite system, may prove to be a life saver for avalanche victims.

The Avalanche case

Similar case: 6 skiers survive backcountry avalanche near Whistler: Report by CBC (link).

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From Bill Buxton's "Sketching User Experiences" (Buxton, 2007).
This case sets up the issues for high-tech design, design that works 'in the wild', that works for real people in real situations and facilitates achieving their human goals.

Bill Buxton sets the scene with the avalanche responder case. It is an incident experienced by his good friend Saul Greenberg, Saul's wife, and three friends when skiing in high mountainous terrain in Canmore and Kananaskis Country, Alberta, Canada.

The group was traversing a valley slope when a lethal avalanche fell across their path. The three skiers in the middle of the group were caught in the slide. The lead (Saul's wife) and the last skier could only watch the disaster unfold as three of the following skiers were engulfed by the avalanche. One was simply knocked down, one was buried up to her shoulders, and the last, Saul, was missing.

Let's pause the story at this point.

Avalanche and path of ski group collide

What is the normal procedure when backwoods skiing where there is a risk of avalanches? 

First, you go equiped with specialised equipment: radio transceivers, probes, and collapsible shovels. But more than just the technology; it requires know-how, knowledge, practices, shared practices, skills, situational analysis, stuff you learn and some stuff you have to make up as you go.

When skiing across an avalanche risk slope or area, you work one of a number of simple systems depending on the severity of the risk. Normal procedure for traversal is to spread out and post lookouts at either end, and traverse one-by-one. If a group gets caught in a slide and some survive (most don't) what do you do?

1. Someone goes lookout (you may be hit by another avalanche). 
2. Reverse triage; rescue the most able first (and they may be able to assist later). 
3. Rescuers go to the approximate location of buried victims, judge if carried onwards, then guide using transceiver. 
4. Use an avalanche probe to locate the body. 
5. When the victim is felt you start to dig and dig. 

The story continues...

"Steve, who was higher, checked up on Shane (who was okay), then immediately went to his wife. He freed her arms, and made sure her head was above the snow." 

"Judy went directly to the spot where she had last seen Saul... In order to pinpoint Saul's location, Judy used her avalanche transceiver. ... Using this, she walked a particular pattern on the snow, employing the loudness of a ping (determined by the strength of a signal from Saul's transceiver) to guide her closer and closer to a spot above where he was buried." 

"Judy started digging. Steve arrived and asked if she had verified the spot with her probe, she hadn’t. Judy was confident that she had the right spot, but by this time she had had to dig so deep that her confidence was wavering…"

Saul had tried to ski his way out of it but got caught in the hollow (avalanches can travel at up to 200km/hr whereas 40km/hr is really fast for a skier).

Saul got caught in the trough, a ‘feature trap’, that also meant he was buried deep! But he had cupped his hand over his mouth and nose, preserving a small air space so he could breathe.

He waited, buried under the weight of the snow, and tried to relax. He had to trust in his partners, their training, his and their gear.

None of the participants had ever been in this situation before. Time elapsed from avalanche impact to rescue was about 10 minutes. Under the conditions, after 20 minutes he would have been dead.

(Buxton, 2007) 

Question: After the 'who'; what saved Saul?

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Instructional videos by Canadian Forest Rescue SEE SAFETY (http://www.fsavalanche.org/).

Design related material:
Source: Buxton, B. (2007) Sketching User Experiences: Getting the Design Right and the Right Design, San Francisco, Morgan Kaufmann. (Video examples for the book can be found at the publisher's companion site)
Bill's homepage (billbuxton.com)