When you venture into the mountains during winter, the steep terrain demands extra preparation. Any slope over 25 degrees presents an avalanche risk, and the right avalanche safety gear can mean the difference between a close call and a body recovery.
The snow safety triad consists of three pieces of avalanche gear that work together as a rescue system: an avalanche beacon, a collapsible snow shovel, and an avalanche probe. Whether you’re snowshoeing, backcountry skiing, ice climbing, or riding a snow machine, these three pieces of avalanche safety gear belong in your pack.
Avalanche Safety Gear Basics: The Beacon
An avalanche beacon is the foundation of your avalanche safety gear setup. This device transmits on an international frequency, allowing unburied members of your party to locate someone trapped beneath the snow.
Every member of your group wears a beacon set to “send” mode. If someone gets buried, the others switch their beacons to “receive” and follow the signal to pinpoint the avalanche victim’s location. Without this technology, finding a buried person in time becomes nearly impossible.
The beacon goes on your body before you enter avalanche terrain, not in your pack. A pack can get ripped off during a slide, leaving you undetectable beneath the snow.
Snow Safety Gear: The Collapsible Shovel
The collapsible snow shovel digs out buried partners, but it serves many other purposes in the backcountry in winter. A high-quality shovel helps you:
- Create tent platforms in deep snow
- Build protective snow walls around your camp
- Dig down to running water sources
- Extract a buried sled or snow machine
- Cut snow blocks for emergency shelter construction
Choose a shovel with an aluminum blade. Avalanche debris compacts into a concrete-like mass, and plastic blades can’t handle chopping through frozen, firm snow. Modern collapsible shovels disassemble for easy packing and weigh very little, so there’s no excuse to leave yours behind.
Avalanche Gear: The Probe
Once your beacon gets you close to a buried victim, the avalanche probe provides exact location data. These collapsible poles extend to 10 feet and lock into place, similar to a tent pole but more rigid.
After narrowing down the search area with your beacon, probe the snow in a systematic pattern until you strike the victim. This tells you exactly where to dig, making your shovel work more efficiently. When someone is suffocating under the snow, every second counts.
Avalanche probes come in carbon fiber or aluminum. Outside of rescue, I’ve used probes to anchor tents in deep snow and even to lower water bottles down to sources I couldn’t physically reach. Like the other pieces of avalanche safety gear, the probe earns its place on this list through versatility.
Why All Three Pieces Matter: Avalanche Safety Tips
The snow safety triad works as an integrated system:
- A beacon without a shovel means you can find your partner, but you can’t dig them out in time
- A shovel without a beacon means you’re digging blindly in a massive debris field
- A probe without both a beacon and a shovel is useless
These snow safety tips apply even when you’re not traveling on steep terrain yourself. If you’re in a valley below slopes over 25 degrees, an avalanche triggered naturally or by someone above you can still reach your position.
Proper avalanche safety gear protects you and allows you to respond if you see someone else get caught.
Avalanche Safety Gear: Non-Negotiable for Winter Travel
The snow safety triad is the minimum standard for responsible winter backcountry travel. An avalanche beacon, collapsible aluminum shovel, and 10-foot probe add minimal weight to your pack but provide maximum capability when mere seconds determine survival prospects.
Before your next winter adventure in steep terrain, make sure all three pieces of avalanche gear are in your pack and that everyone in your party knows how to use them. Your preparation could save a life, including your own.
by John Barklow, a Special Operations Survival Instructor and consultant who has spent decades teaching military personnel and civilians survival techniques in extreme environments.
