In the past 17+ years of teaching AIARE avalanche courses, we have never used a photo of an avalanche. All of our photos show backcountry skiers about to enter, or have already entered, into suspect terrain.
The reason we teach avalanche courses isn’t to thrill your senses with the impressive power of an avalanche in all of its glory and destructive force. If you’re seeing this in real life you’ve likely gone into somewhere you shouldn’t have been to begin with. Being caught in an avalanche can happen, even if you’re “doing everything right,” and can be catastrophic.
This photo used in our 2008-2009 courses shows the top of a long avalanche chute that has claimed lives in the past, and it is very representative of what all backcountry skiers/boarders are familiar with. It’s this exact setting that exemplifies the situation of making decisions in avalanche terrain, which is the exact banner AIARE flies. What we are teaching is the framework on how to make these decisions.
Once you’re caught in a avalanche, there’s not many more decisions to be made until you’re dug out, hopefully alive.
Winner, winner! With a little editing.
“Because your decision making keeps SHOULD keep you out of the areas the slide would happen.”