How to Read Off Piste Terrain when Skiing and Snowboarding

Taken from a series of tutorials on Off Piste Safety for skiers and snowboarders. Full course here: www.alpinetuto...
Arguably the most important skillset for off-piste skiers and snowboarders - TERRAIN ANALYSIS is your most reliable and valuable tool to avoid avalanches and score good conditions. Here's 6 important features to look out for and a memory aid to help you check through them when you are choosing where to go.

[@m_dizzle8118]

Super high quality content, thank you! Please keep it coming.

[@alpinetutorials]

thanks, really appreciate the comment

[@vnderrr]

hey great instruction thanks

[@alpinetutorials]

Thanks Max

[@AintNoHatin]

Clear concise content, thank you for making this!!

[@alpinetutorials]

Thanks for the comment. Hope it's useful

[@AlpineAddict]

Oh man this video really makes me miss the PDS! :(

[@alpinetutorials]

recognise a lot of these landscapes?

[@IamtheWV17]

Fantastic video with a lot of good information presented in one place.

[@alpinetutorials]

Thanks for this

[@redrockcrf4663]

Thanks for the concise video

[@alpinetutorials]

Glad it was helpful

[@hanswurst5519]

Great video. Thank you for putting this together

[@alpinetutorials]

Glad you enjoyed it

[@Ca_milo_G]

thnx

[@chavenord]

And so what are you supposed to do with all of these factors? How do you add them all up to make a decision?

[@alpinetutorials]

That's a great question and there's no simple answer. These features help you to better understand how dangerous certain slopes are so you can choose locations which are suitable to the current conditions. If it's high avalanche danger or bad weather, for example, then we must choose safer terrain. That's my imperfect attempt at summarising it without writing an essay, hope it's of some use. This tutorial isn't supposed to be a standalone complete guide to off piste decision making - terrain analysis is a skillset which should be developed over time (preferably over a long and happy lifetime) alongside avalanche awareness, forecasting, reading the avi bulletin, equipment, mapping, route planning, basic human psychology, real world observation skillset and emergency procedures.
If that's of interest to you or anyone else reading then check out further tutorials like this one on human factors in off piste safety:
th-cam.com/video/O2uQ4oWq5eo/w-d-xo.html&ab_channel=ALPINETUTORIALS
Or this one on 6 ways to read slope steepness:
th-cam.com/video/0lN9UDh2uGo/w-d-xo.html&ab_channel=ALPINETUTORIALS
There's also a full course which will soon be available here: th-cam.com/video/0lN9UDh2uGo/w-d-xo.html&ab_channel=ALPINETUTORIALS
Cheers,
George

[@sanderkan3796]

Nice!

[@jwj8201]

In places like the Upper Penisula of Michigan, NE Minnesota Iron Range and other 700-900 ft hills in the Great Lakes region, would you say that avalanches are equally deadly and frequent? I've thought about buying hybrid bindings for knee safety and touring the regions that get 100-250 inches of snow a year, but I don't know how avalanche trained and technically skilled I really need to be.

[@ytmike100]

I could be naive but I've been skiing in the UP for a while and avalanches don't cross my mind

[@calhoungerber7529]

Minnesotan here. Your good. In the UP maybe biiiig maybe but in MN don’t sweat it.

[@flaviosan3020]

Problem is that when I try to apply all the theory I simply turn back to the car park without skiing

[@idkanymore6634]

send it brother

[@al3440]

Try not to

[@johnjrp01]

You says '39 degress slopes are the most dangerous for avalanches'. You seem to be confusing 'danger' with 'likelihood'. The level of danger has nothing to do with the slope angle. The likelihood of an avalanche however can be correlated with the slope angle.

[@jsmit9484]

I agree that it's not the most accurate statement, but don't you think the incidence of avalanches sort of equals the danger of being on that slope?

[@alpinetutorials]

Hi John, thanks for picking up on that and yes, technically, I think likelihood would have been a better word choice. I'll bear that in mind when making amendments. In the meantime, I hope this section still gets across the main message about slope steepness

[@will286]

👊 ƤＲＯ𝓂Ｏ𝕤ᗰ

[@petervass2745]

I hate that you straight start talking about avalanches and you don't even mention why and what about the other dangers

[@alpinetutorials]

You're absolutely right, avalanches need a full introduction and to be put into perspective in relation to other off piste hazards. If you can see the video's thumbnail title screen, you'll see it is labelled 'lesson 3'. This tutorial is one of a series and that is exactly what is detailed in lesson 1, it's just I haven't published those yet. Sorry if that's misleading.

[@alpinetutorials]

Here's tutorial 1 of you are still interested. cheers: th-cam.com/video/CqHSWIarF3o/w-d-xo.html&ab_channel=ALPINETUTORIALS