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Show THE DAILY UTAH CHRONICLE Monday, January PireTssuro 1 3, 200 3 tor Skiers Can Educate Themselves About the Ins and Outs of AVALANCHE SAFETY BETHANY LOPEZ Chronicle Staff Writer 't 5 Snow was falling lightly as U alumnus Don Despain and his friends hiked to the summit of Box Elder peak, excited to ski down the hillside. But on their way down, Despain felt a rumble and suddenly the entire slope was sliding down beneath ! ,1 him. I Everything turned into a white spray that tumbled Despain around in a dizzy spin. When the snow settled, he found himself disoriented and encased tightly underneath the surface of the snow. "I thought, 'Well, you've gone and killed yourself at this tender age,'" Despain said. "I was yelling as loudly as I could, but sound doesn't really travel out of snow very well." His friends acted quickly. "I felt a pole pushed into the snow right above me, and I grabbed it with my hand and yelled. It turned out that I was only under about a foot and a half of snow it's amazing that I couldn't move at all. All this stuff people think about being able to dig themselves out of avalanches is nonsense." Patrick Eibs, a member of the American Association of Avalanche Professionals and a ski patrol director at a local resort, highly recommends avalanche safety classes. He also recommends calling the local avalanche forecast hotline before going into the backcountry. "Avalanche forecasts don't go into that much depth," Eibs said. "That's why it's important to have taken a class, so when you get up on the mountain you can make wise decisions as to exactly where you're going to go and which slopes you trust to 19th January "5V Beacons, shovels and probes are a must for backcountry snow travel, but training and experience are what will ultimately save lives. requires training courses. "Beacon training is absolutely necessary," Eibs said. "We take our patrolmen out for beacon drills every single week, Someone goes ahead and buries a beacon on a slope, and someone else has to ski around in a grid pattern until he or 14, Noon 14, Anti-Diversi- ty 15, Noon art 7:00 p.m. Film Presentation, Legacy KUED KUED 17, January 20, 7:00 a raisin in the sun? Or fester like a sore And then run? Does it stink like rotten meat? sugar sweet? a heavy load. Or docs it explode? like in Hard Times p.m. Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday Awards Presentation & Cultural Performance, Dianne Reeves Kingsbury Hall like it dry up Maybe it just sas 9:00 p.m. Presentation, A Dream Deferred? Utah Channel 7 Does Or. crust and Olpin Union Theatre January Dream Deferred What happens to a dream deferred? . Hu-DeH- 16, Initiatives" 7:00 p.m. Keynote Address, Evelyn Professor of History and Director of the Center for the Study of Race & Ethnicity in America, Brown University Olpin Union Ballroom January see AVALANCHE, page 5 What Happens to a Dream Deferred? Student Performance, The Road to Brown: An Interactive Exploration Olpin Union Theatre January she finds it. Beginners can take quite a while," he said. But having all the right gear is no guarantee of safety. Many avalanche victims suffer trauma injuries from being tumbled Annual Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration Panel Discussion, 'Deferring the Dream: The Impact of Gould Auditorium, Marriot Library January (K 5 ski." In addition to avalanche education, Eibs also says that having the appropriate gear, like beacons, shovels and probes, is a must. "People are hesitant to become more educated and prepared in avalanche safety because it can get quite expensive beacons retail for an easy $250 to $350," Despain said. Some avalanche equipment can be difficult to use and often ,rx iff -- Langston Hughes |
