Top 10 Snow, Ice & Avalanche Safety Tips

January — Snow, Ice & Avalanche

Peak avalanche and ice-incident season. This one runs in-season on purpose.

  1. Check the avalanche forecast every single day you go out. Conditions change overnight. In the US, avalanche.org lists your regional center.
  2. Carry a beacon, probe, and shovel — and practice with them. Gear you've never drilled with is dead weight. Run a burial drill at the trailhead.
  3. Take an avalanche course. A Level 1 (AIARE or equivalent) is the single biggest safety upgrade a backcountry traveler can buy.
  4. Cross suspect slopes one person at a time. Everyone else watches from a safe spot with eyes on the traveler.
  5. Know your ice. New, clear ice is strongest: 4 inches minimum for walking on foot, 8–12 inches for a car. White or opaque ice is roughly half as strong. Thickness is never uniform — near inlets, springs, and moving water it can be inches thinner.
  6. Carry ice picks around your neck and a throw rope on the shore. Self-rescue from an ice break is nearly impossible bare-handed.
  7. Layer, and leave the cotton home. Wet cotton pulls heat out of you fast. Wool or synthetics next to skin.
  8. Learn to spot hypothermia and frostbite early — fumbling hands, slurred speech, stumbling, waxy white skin. The person affected is usually the last to notice.
  9. Wear a helmet for skiing, sledding, snowmobiling, and ice climbing.
  10. Leave a trip plan and carry a satellite communicator. Cell coverage in the alpine is thin to nonexistent.

Want this broken into weekly topics? See the January Weekly Content Calendar.

Not into snow, ice & avalanche? Try snowshoeing instead — same season, none of the backcountry/avalanche exposure, and groomed trails are forgiving for beginners.

Part of the Rec+Safe Theme of the Month calendar.