Avalanches can happen at any moment in the snowy mountains. This past week, there's been multiple avalanches in the Sierra mountains.
Over the weekend at Relay Ridge, an avalanche occurred about one mile from Mt. Rose.
No one was caught in it and thankfully no one was injured.
For Mt. Rose Ski Patrol, avalanche rescue is a major component in their training.
They work in pairs and the first thing they train is how to find their partner.
They do a lot of training before the season starts and say the most important step for avalanche rescue is gathering information.
"You don't want to act too quick without the accurate information," said Mike Ferrari, Ski Patrol Director for Mt. Rose Ski Resort. "You don't want to end up in the wrong location. You don't want to end getting people hurt trying to help somebody."
For avalanche mitigation, the team at Mt. Rose forecasts where the snow currently stands and what it will look like once more snow hits the ground.
Once that happens, they test the forecast with avalanche bombs to reduce that hazard.
"An explosive is sending a shockwave," Ferrari said. "You're basically putting an elephant on the snow."
The avalanche near Mt. Rose happened in the back country, but they can still happen in ski resorts.
"Avalanches should be considered an inherent risk in avalanche terrain and there's a lot of avalanche terrain in ski areas," Ferrari said.
With how the snowpack looks right now, more could be on the way.
We're in a situation where we still have a persistent weak layer, we have some old layers in the snow that could activate once we get a load on it and then we've also have had a lot of wind so the second problem for the area would be a wind slab,"Â Ferrari said.
However, there's still some hope if the snow falls a certain way.
"The best thing we could get right now is a wet heavy load to try and get rid some of those weak layers," Ferrari said.
If you do end up being on the mountain when one falls, Ferrari says to do your best to fight against it.
"Fight to stay on top. Fight to perhaps to anchor yourself to the bed surface below where the avalanche is released. You might be able to dig your boots or your poles or something into that bed surface. But the main thing is you want to fight, try and get out to the side."
If you are unable to fight and end up getting buried, Ferrari says the best thing you can do is make yourself an air pocket so you can breathe.
"The bigger space you can make for yourself when you're buried under the snow, the better chance a rescuer is going to have to find you," he said. "Ultimately, if you're really buried in an avalanche, there's a 15-minute window where somebody needs to find you and dig you out."
Ferrari says there is some gear you can bring with you so ski patrol can find you much quicker.
"There's a number of ways to be searchable," he said. "Probably the primary way is to have an avalanche transceiver, what's also called a beacon. Besides that, you can have a RECCO reflector, which comes in clothing, could come in a boot, could come in a helmet."
Ferrari says all ski resorts in the Sierra mountains have RECCO detectors, so if you have one of the reflectors, you will be easier to find.
