PRIORITIZING FIELD DATA FROM PITS, WEATHER & SNOWPACK

The more you push out into bigger, more complex, more exposed or higher consequence terrain in the backcountry, everyone starts to realize at some point that effective data collection is pretty instrumental to safe and successful travel through avalanche terrain. 

We might have ‘X’ amount of avalanche courses under our belts, or ‘Y’ amount of days in the backcountry, but what really distinguishes intuitive backcountry travellers is the ability to filter through a ton of data from different sources and pick out the information relative to the day's objective. Out there, it's a data overload. What key things should stand out in a snow pit when testing stability? What should you look out for with changing weather? How does the day's process fit in with the planning stages?

Obviously, these skills don’t appear in a day, but knowing where/how to start and being disciplined about the process can build up to become habitual and natural. Check out this great article from Sarah Carpenter, ex-ski patroller/guide/educator and long-time backcountry traveller as she shares some of her own beta: about her morning hypothesis, her day's process and her categorization of data for effective interpretation on the fly.