Preparing for Winter (Dec 2025)

As we feel the anticipation of what winter 25/26 might bring, especially in these climatically uncertain times of change, I guess it’s also time to also think about how we as winter sports enthusiasts consider the uncertainty of the terrain we work in, the weather, and how we respond to snow incidents. Early season snowfall in Europe has already caused some major avalanche incidents. Early season complacency in skiers in often obvious avalanche terrain where almost ground level instabilities exist from depth hoar and faceting. While in some cases avalanches are directly proportional to snow quantity and slope angle, in equally as many cases there is a paradox that sometimes less snow can be equally as hazardous, especially in steep terrain. On mountains like Glencoe Mountain ski area some red runs are much steeper and have many terrain features that change slope aspects and angles when not filled in early season. These are not uniform slopes and they also have terrain traps for the avalanched skier. Also, shallow snowpacks encourage steeper temperature gradients and faceting (crystal re growth which becomes a danger when new snow falls on top).

As ski patrollers we work in even more uncertain times where less snow can be as hazardous as deep, depending on terrain, and where one day we may work in the pouring rain, the next day boiler plate ice, and the day following feet of deep new snow. Or the reverse of that process, where getting buried in deep wet snowy slop more or less drowns the victim in white concrete. So we should be even more acutely avalanche aware now, and in my opinion make more local observations and not just rely on the area avalanche forecast which is regional not local. And of course we should be prepared for both companion and professional rescue. It’s really important pre-season to update transceiver firmware, run function checks, and replace or charge batteries. We should all be aware of the risk of ski cutting, an activity which is intrinsically risky. We can’t change that risk, but we can change the consequences and have protocols and the essential kit and response plans in place. If you haven’t made the protocols then now is the time.

Recco is also becoming a big part of professional rescue in Scotland, including and especially ski rescue. And a growing number of Scottish civilian rescue teams are now Recco R9 detector equipped. This is timely, as major UK mountaineering brands are now incorporating reflectors into ski and mountaineering clothing. RAB and Black Diamond recently, and more big names to follow soon. Patagonia and Arcteryx have reflectors in clothing already. Some UK and Scottish mountain rescue teams are asking for removable Recco reflectors in the standard MR uniform. We are currently in the process of negotiating Recco detection being carried by UK SAR air assets for use by teams who do not have a detector, should these teams be called to an avalanche. Also, at the recent ICAR congress, there was discussion of standard drone fitments and during a Recco demo on a drone everyone was impressed by how successful that was. More and more SAR helicopter operators are using the Recco SAR. We recently equipped SAR operators in North and South Island NZ with Recco SAR. All Recco equipped rescue groups have access to the Recco pro portal where there is some interesting data on finds, including someone with a stent which gave a signal.

Pre-season its also worth updating personal knowledge of the special circumstances, medical aspects and post avalanche care of avalanche victims. There are a few tweaks to hypothermia assessment and Swiss staging, including AVPU becoming AcVPU.

Train Hard- Fight Easy

Davy Gunn (BASP Honorary Member)