Avalanche Safety Self-Evaluation Quiz Results & Answers

Backcountry Skiing and Snowsports Avalanche Risk Self-Evaluation Quiz
Explanation and Discussion of Questions & Answers

Please take the quiz before reading this page.

Please know that most questions in the quiz have no right or wrong answer. It is a “weighted” quiz, meaning we assign the different answers a number that shifts the overall score one way or the other, and allows us to make some questions more important than others. For example, questions that are debatable have less weight.

Remember the quiz is designed to establish your personal risk level, not your level of expertise or knowledge. All backcountry winter travelers should have some level of avalanche safety education. Check the AIARE website for a course near you.

The questions:

Do you recreate in places where a snow avalanche could bury you — how frequently?
This question establishes your risk level based on how frequently you get out. The more days you spend the higher your risk. With more days out, you must compensate by being ever more careful and increasing your knowledge base. You can still get a good score on the quiz even if you pick the higher number of days, but to compensate you have to pick more answers that ratchet your risk level back down.

Over 35…under 18.
Similar to above, simply evaluates what statistical risk category you’re in. Over 35 and under 18 are less risky than the alternative. (Due to ongoing research, we’ll probably change these ages as bit.) But please know this question is simply related to your age group and statistical probability of death in an avalanche. The WHY of that, whether it be behavior or simply more days in the backcountry, is something left to the behavioral scientists. In our case with this Quiz, the idea is you place yourself within the higher risk age group, and it thus skews your score a bit. Nothing more complex than that. Though we would suggest that behavior does change with age, and this is a factor worth considering in your self evaluation.

Do you consider yourself an expert winter backcountry traveler?
Somewhat of a trick question, answer weighting is based on the fact that experts tend to be over confident and ignore their knowledge, as well as spend more days in the backcountry.

Do you wear a helmet while doing snowsports?
As some documented avalanche deaths involve head injury, we give a small amount of positive weight to using a helmet. That said, we are not impressed with the level of protection most helmets offer, nor do we think they’re essential equipment. Our helmet coverage.

What is your main backcountry winter recreation?
Each answer is weighted according to current statistics. Not a big deal in the overall score.

Where do you mostly winter recreate in North America?
The difference in danger between maritime and continental snowpacks is immense. We didn’t want to use those technical terms for snowpack so we tried to go with regions. Super important to your overall score.

What size group do you usually travel with, including yourself?
Answers weighted by statistics, the smaller groups are safer.

When you’re traveling in avalanche terrain with a group, how do decisions such as goals and routes get made?
So long as the group has a modicum of knowledge, group decision making is safer than following a leader, be they a guide or otherwise. Weighting of the answers reflects that.

Do you have formal (avalanche school etc.) avalanche safety training.
Answers to this question have very little weight. Stats show formally educated skiers get killed all too often. We did rate having education as being ever so slightly better than not, but sadly, overall it appears to have little influence on how at-risk you are. This is a difficult issue, as we certainly don’t feel the solution is for everyone to stop learning about avalanches. A radical shift in avalanche education is probably what needs to happen to change things in this area. This quiz is an attempt to contribute to that cause. (December 2019 update: We have seen a shift in avalanche education, with more emphasis on decision making, heuristics, judgement, etc.)

If four people ski down a possible avalanche slope, and you’re the fourth, is your run much safer than theirs?
Answers weighted that fourth skier might be slightly safer, but best answer is NO. One of the verboten non-P.C. concepts in avalanche safety education is that a slope could actually be safer due to how many times it’s been skied. But it can be, if for no other reason than the first person is USUALLY more likely to trigger an avalanche than the 30th. Indeed, any avid backcountry skier knows there are slopes that get skied so many times they rarely slide, and it’s often very easy to evaluate such slopes. But using this as a decision making factor requires a high level of knowledge about snowpack, slope history and so on, so we keep best answer as NO.

Do you ski with an airbag backpack?
Answer weighting is based on what we’re hearing in the community as well as studies done by manufacturers and avalanche safety folks, that deploying an airbag backpack when you’re caught in an avalanche can significantly improve your chance of surviving. We thus weight this question fairly high, though it still mixes with all other answers. Mitigating factor is that most avalanches are violent, and victims are frequently killed by trauma. More, a surprising number of victims for some reason do not deploy their bag. While an airbag backpack might protect your head and neck (and some, your upper torso), we see no solid evidence that trauma protection is enhanced to any significant degree, and thus we do not regard the airbag backpacks as the ultimate solution to avalanche safety. Instead, not getting caught in the first place is still your 100% reliable means of prevention.

During your last season of winter backcountry recreation, how many times did you skip something fun but risky…?
Important and heavily weighted question. If you’re not making “turn back” decisions you’re not playing the game and will eventually be ‘lanched.

Do you talk with your partners and companions about goals before the trip, or just charge up the hill and hit what looks good?
Also important, best answer is “Some discussion, everyone has say.” Arguments shows poor group dynamics, so that answer is weighted to show more risk.

If you are an experienced and educated backcountry traveler, does being in familiar avalanche terrain reduce your risk?
Trick question, answer based on observations that show this may NOT be the case — but rather a classic gotcha. Not heavily weighted due to debate about the veracity of this concept.

If you’re a man, do you often travel in mixed gender groups?
Lightly weighted, possible that men in mixed gender groups tend to take more risks so answers reflect that.

Do your companions do a fairly involved beacon search practice at least two times a winter?
This survey gives very little weight to gear issues, but the activity of doing beacon drills is a measure of risk reducing behavior and is thus moderately weighted to the YES answer. More, live saves do occur due to fast beacon use in avalanche burials, so everyone should practice at least once a season. The number two is arrived at by gut instinct and has no basis in statistical studies.

How many times each season do you arrive at a trailhead, and decide to leave some of your avalanche safety gear in the car instead of taking it with you?
This question is an attitude check, lightly weighted, best answer is “Never.”

What percentage of avalanche victims die from being hurt in the slide?
Some say about one quarter, some say a bit more than that. One quarter is the best answer, but “two thirds” scores well also as it shows the quiz taker is will aware of the fact that avalanches kill in ways where a quick rescue will make no difference in the outcome –and thus (hopefully) influences their behavior in light of technology such as beacons and Avalungs. This question is a good illustration of how this is NOT an avalanche knowledge quiz. A somewhat wrong answer that shows a person is cautious or has good awareness of how dangerous avalanches are can add to the score, though we don’t weight that heavily.

Is backcountry skiing or snowmachine highmarking avalanche slopes as dangerous as other somewhat risky sports, like sky diving?
This question is intended to measure your awareness that recreating in avalanche terrain, especially if it involves actually climbing or descending avy slopes, is a fairly risky endeavor. The answer is not heavily weighted. Our best attempts at finding information about risk levels say that in some situations, such as that of constantly skiing backcountry avalanche slopes, you’re doing a high risk sport and owe to yourself and loved ones to realize this and act appropriately. On the other hand, if you’re frequently turning back because of your decision making, and taking a cautious approach, we feel the risk level can be quite a bit lower than that. Weighting of the quiz answers attempts to adjust for this. We’ve heard from some sources that overall, in some regions, the chances of getting killed in an avalanche are similar to that of a car crash. That is definitly not the case in our region of Colorado, and we’re certain that stat is figured as “overall” number, rather than correlated somehow to hours spent driving vs hours spent while exposed to avalanche hazard. In other words, if you spent as much time skiing avalanche slopes as you did driving, things might look very bad in terms of your avalanche odds.

Do your friends have first aid training and carry first aid gear?
Again, more of a question to establish what situations you’re getting yourself into, though having trained responders on hand does up your odds of surviving a slide. Best answers are either “Yes,” or “I ski with EMTs.”

Do you check the local avalanche forecast before your trips?
Another attitude question. Heavily weighted. “Yes” or “Don’t have one.” are best answers.

At what forecasting hazard level do most avalanche deaths occur?
This varies by region, so we ask about hazard rating ranges instead of specific ratings. Most deaths occur in the Moderate/Considerable range. This is an essential fact that anyone making decisions about travelin avalanche terrain must be aware of. Thus, the only right answer here is Moderate/Considerable, and it is heavily weighted.

https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/ada3/70f8a6fa6565037e6855e699084b8a350dba.pdf

What’s the use of alpha angle?
This question evaluates your knowledge base. Correct answer is that alpha angle is used to figure out how far a slide can run — useful if you’re traveling below avalanche paths and making route decisions regarding safe zones. More avalanche alpha angle information.

Do most of your backcountry partners have a fairly high level of avalanche safety knowledge, as good or better than yours?
While we know that being an “expert” doesn’t increase safety as much as we’d like to think it does, we feel strongly that traveling with ignorant companions is asking for trouble. Answers are weighted accordingly.

When your group travels up or down an avalanche slope, do they always go one at a time?
Answers reflect attitude and behavior in avalanche terrain. Fact is that the more often groups climb or descend avalanche slopes one-at-a-time, fewer people will end up dead. Heavily weighted, since the goal of this quiz is to asses your personal risk.

Do you always carry an avalanche beacon in avalanche terrain, and is it always turned on in avalanche terrain?
Again, this is not a “how prepared are you” quiz, but beacons have proven to save lives and are easily obtained and carried, so the obvious correct answer is important to the overall score.

Do most avalanches that kill people happen on slopes steeper than 40 degrees?
No, most killer slides are in the 35 to 40 degree range, though some occur outside that range. The point here is that inexperienced backcountry travelers frequently look to obvious steeper slopes as where the danger is, when in reality they may be standing on a lower angle avalanche slope that’s primed for a big killer slide. This question is important because identifying avalanche slopes is key to making good decisions.

Is a snowpit you dig and study a good way to be certain about the safety of a slope you plan on climbing or descending?
While they may be a good exercise in awareness of the snowpack, and help your group slow down and talk, snowpits are frequently over rated as a method of predicting the stability of a slope. They are simply one of many observations you must make to evaluate your level of risk.

Run the quiz again if you like, and print out your answers for reference before you hit the “Show Results” button

Lastly, we can easily edit the questions and answers so we can act on your feedback — by no means do we think this quiz is the end-all be-all, it’s just a start! To comment on this quiz please leave a blog comment here.