 Poster: A snowHead
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@phil_w, do you have a link to the Bob Sawyer explanation? Googling things like "worksafebc Sawyer airbag" doesn't bring up anything useful.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Yes. It was a political issue in 2018. It seems a long time ago now. This is the article I had in mind:
https://powdercanada.com/2018/07/ski-guides-required-wear-avalanche-airbags/
Bear in mind I know all the people involved there, including those no longer here to defend themselves. Plus their kids.
Bella Coola's snowpack and terrain are rather different from Sayer's home ground, but I'd guess they probably equip their guests with packs,
which as explained is not uncommon, but which means your guides have to be similarly equipped in practice.
In several weeks this year I never saw a Wiegele guide with an airbag, although some had unequipped RAS packs.
They all vote with their knees and Sayer [I can never spell his name!]. WorkSafeBC could change that, but apparently hasn't yet.
FWIW the snow safety manager at one BC resort does ride with an airbag backpack... but the RAS has been removed, which is why I have his cylinder 
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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Personally I don't think guides should be mandated to wear airbags. That said I think Sayers reasoning in that article are pretty poor arguments:
Less weight. Sure but it's pretty insignificant. I don't believe a couple lbs in a backpack is massively going to change risk of injury. For those guiding multi day traverses and/or carrying ski mountaineering gear it would make sense. For Heli skiing guides I don't really buy it.
Taking more risks. I do think that some people do take more risks because of wearing an airbag. The same is true for wearing helmets and I'm sure noone would suggest guides shouldn't wear one? I like to think someone highly qualified guiding a group is going to make the right decisions. I've worked as a hiking guide and my mindset is completely different when guiding others and doing my own trips.
A better arguments for guides not wearing airbags:
- they are experts in their field and should be able to judge what safety equipment is necessary for specific conditions/situations.
- I don't personally think a guide not wearing an airbag increases risk to their clients.
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Did a few days with Eagle Pass heli in Revelstoke last year. Thought they were excellent all-round. Lodge, heli, terrain, safety, everything, spot-on. They have a vast choice of terrain available. We had a lot of snow while I was there that took steeper Alpine stuff off the menu but, even so, the first day in particular was both quite steep and quite technical. As in, a lot of my own clients would have struggled. After the big snowfall, we rode slightly mellower terrain with wide-open trees. Airbags provided (mandatory). Also mandatory to use their transceivers. Absolutely zero waiting around. As in, if you don't ride fast you'll be struggling to get your board and pack off and stacked before the heli turns up.
As far as wearing an airbag goes, I'd agree it should be the guides' own choice. To use a quote above that I like, I personally vote with my knees and pick and choose my airbag days. I'll use it if there's lots of fresh snow or if I am riding particularly steep terrain. When the risk is lower, I'll use a lighter pack. In practice, this probably means I end up using the airbag for about 50% of slackcountry guiding days, maybe 25% of touring days. I'm well into my 40s and anything to reduce the repetitive loads on my knees and back is worth it, especially those times when the next day off is still something you need to look at a calendar to figure out.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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Yeah I like Eagle Pass and their new lodge looks funky. They're in the right place for terrain and snow too.
It's a bit too close to the resort (which affects group ability, not the quality of the product!).
The image below was shot at Eagle Pass. The footprints were an animal.
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The last (I hope!) fatality this season was at Last Frontier, making an aggregate of 6.
There were other slides and fatalities in western Canada, it was just a high risk year. The entire LF group was in the slide.
Last Frontier played games with my schedules and money in Covid days, which I fixed after research into Canadian civil law.
That's cost them lots in sales, because I just keep on talking about it. Oh, I did it again.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Another thought on the Airbag front - I believe they are now mandated for ski patrollers in France. This, as far as I know, was the result of a fatal accident where a patroller died and his family argued that the resort should have provided him with an airbag as part of the safety equipment for his job and that his life may have been saved had they done so. Given the specific circumstances of the accident, it's hard to argue with this. As I understand it, he was the last man down, closing the resort for the day, and was avalanched on an itinerary run which he had personally bombed the same day. It was a relatively small slide, but he was buried and nobody was aware until it was too late.
From what I understand, the investigation into the cause of the slide suggested that the drop in temperature at the end of the had caused a contraction in the snowpack which was enough to destabilise it.
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