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LearnFreeRide Pitfalls And How To Avoid Them

Mountain sports feed the soul, quicken the pulse and make us FreeRiders feel alive. Maybe it’s the majesty of the untracked landscape or the knife-edge margin of error between success and failure, but in FreeRide terrain we feel free – it’s called FreeRiding, after all. (See Lore #17: FreeRide for a free mind)

However, you’re never truly free to take a risk unless you have the knowledge required to assess it, and that’s why we’ve created this list of safety tips.

On-piste but still at risk

Due to the scale of the terrain that FreeRiders pursue, you may be surprised to find that the most common cause of rider deaths isn’t due to avalanche trauma, a climbing fall or being trapped in a crevasse, but collisions inbounds and on the piste*. Of course, everyone has to start somewhere, and the wide open groomers are a fantastic learning environment for beginners, but on-piste riding isn’t danger-free.

So when you are technically able, why not beat the crowds and look beyond the boundary marker? The prospect of spending  your time in FreeRide terrain is appealing, but you’ll need to know the common safety mistakes and how to avoid them:

Get the kit and learn how to use it

Transceiver, Shovel and Probe are the bare minimum, but these potential life-savers are useless without the proper knowledge of how to use them (see our article: Safety Basics – the tools you need for FreeRide).

Read the avalanche report, heed the warnings

It’s a common habit to put your faith in others who you feel are more knowledgeable or experienced – this is known as an ‘Expert Halo’ (see our article: Heuristic Traps). The truth is: giving yourself the knowledge of the local avalanche report on a daily basis is the most important piece of information you can carry.

TIP: Bookmark in your browser a link to the local avalanche report. It only takes 5 minutes to read and you may be surprised at how quickly your understanding grows day to day. 

Make a plan

Blinded by the hope of fresh tracks, it’s common for groups to head out without a plan. Even the simplest of plans can greatly reduce your risk and help to keep you safe.  A plan is easy to create; at the most basic level, it’s knowing your group or solo objectives for the day and how these line up with the avalanche & weather reports, and making a risk assessment (see our article: How to perform a basic risk assessment).

TIP: Set out the plan and agree on a leader at your first rendezvous, ideally before you strap on your board or click into your skis. Also, share this with someone outside the group, so they can raise the alarm if you don’t check-in by an agreed time. (check out our Group Safety Checklist). Don’t forget that it’s important to make plans that are adaptable and stay relevant through changing conditions.

Blinded by the hope of fresh tracks, it’s common for groups to head out without a plan. Even the simplest of plans can greatly reduce your risk.

Practise safe group FreeRiding

Skiing & Snowboarding are solo sports that are more fun when they’re shared, but without care, riding as a group can make things more dangerous. When standing at the top of a line with your buddies it can be hard to resist the urge to ‘dive in together’, but this greatly increases avalanche risk (see our article: Safe travel in avalanche terrain).

TIP: Take a moment as a group to survey the terrain and identify an island of safety where you will rendezvous as well as any hazards such as terrain traps or vulnerable points to be avoided. Agree a safe distance to maintain between you and others when on the slope. Finally, designate a crash test dummy to go first and someone to go last and act as sweeper.

It can be hard to resist the urge to ‘dive in together’

Beware the tracks of others

It’s entirely human to see a set of tracks and think some of the following; I wonder where they lead, it must be safe if someone else has gone that way, someone knows something I don’t, I bet there is a sick secret line down there that has my name on it. All of the above pique our interest, but none are smart. Just because someone else has ridden a line, it doesn’t mean it’s safe.

TIP: Stay safe by scoping lines from below, planning your route in advance using a physical or virtual map. It’s worth noting that following blindly has always been a bad idea, since the advent of Speed Riding the consequences have grown significantly. 

Don’t be a sheep, speak for yourself

We are taught from an early age that there is safety in numbers, and this may hold some truth, but it can also give you false comfort. Humans tend to gravitate to consensus & majority, and this can lead to poor decision making. If you are at all unsure about the decisions being made, speak up, question the consensus – avalanches don’t care about skill level or experience. When in doubt, trust your gut and speak up.

TIP: You may find it surprising that when you challenge the status quo, how many others also have concerns but don’t feel that they should be the one to speak up. This could save not only your life, but the lives of your group. It’s worth it.

Avalanches don’t care about skill level or experience

Pay attention to the conditions

The weather in the mountains changes fast and can be highly localised. Meteorologists attempt to predict changes in the daily weather report, and avalanche predictors do their best to foretell how these changes will impact the snowpack stability. It is important to take note of these predictions, but just as important is monitoring what you are experiencing and making your own decisions based on what’s in front of you – when on the mountain, don’t underestimate the power of your own eyes and ears!

We hasten to add, this is not an exhaustive list – FreeRide safety just isn’t that simple – but follow these safety tips to set  yourself up for success.

Everyone is different, and you may follow some of your own safety rules of the mountain. What keeps you safer on the hill? Let us know in the comments.

Ride safe. We’ll see you up there.

Learn how to use them and practise regularly

*National Ski areas association fatality data 2019/20

 

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