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Staying Alive in Avalanche Terrain

bruce tremper

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Winter recreation in the mountains has increased steadily over the past few years, and so has the number of deaths and injuries caused by avalanches. Staying Alive in Avalanche Terrain covers everything you need to know to avoid trouble in avalanche terrain: what avalanches are and how they work, common myths, human activities that lead to avalanche trouble, what happens to victims when an avalanche occurs, and rescue techniques. 272 pages, 114 illustrations, 60 b&w photographs.

284 pages, Paperback

First published January 1,2001

This edition

Format
284 pages, Paperback
Published
January 1, 2001 by Mountaineers Books
ISBN
9780898868340
ASIN
0898868343
Language
English

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About the author

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bruce tremper

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Bruce grew up skiing in the mountains of western Montana where his father taught him the basics of avalanches at the age of 10. After a successful ski racing career, he did avalanche control at Bridger Bowl Ski Area in Montana, earned a Masters Degree in Geology from Montana State University, studying under the well-known avalanche scientists Dr. John Montagne and Dr. Bob Brown. He then took over as the Director of Avalanche Control at Big Sky Ski Area in Montana, worked as a backcountry avalanche forecaster for the Alaska Avalanche Center and he has been the Director of the Utah Avalanche Center since 1986. Bruce has been featured in numerous national and international television documentaries about avalanches including those produced by National Geographic, Discovery Channel, History Channel, Weather Channel and PBS and he regularly appears on national network news programs. Bruce wrote the books "Staying Alive in Avalanche Terrain," and "Avalanche Essentials" both published by Mountaineers Books.

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Community Reviews

Rating(4.2 / 5.0, 65 votes)
5 stars
26(40%)
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23(35%)
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16(25%)
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65 reviews All reviews
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nettiex
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 1,2025
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This book does a solid job of breaking down avalanche safety into digestible pieces while avoiding oversimplifying. Reading it left me with a clearer path towards becoming a confident snow safety practitioner. I often feel like the way forwards in snow safety learning is unclear, so that is a welcome change.
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BishopME
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 1,2025
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At first I found this hard to read, probably because the first part is focused on snow science, which can be complex and boring. But then it shifts to what you can do to keep yourself safe (and around this time I had taken a course so all the stuff started to make sense) and it becomes a great read.
Definitely recommended for anyone looking to go into the backcountry. I appreciate Tremper's knowledge of human psychology and the foibles we make.
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ManlyOpinion
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 1,2025
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This book may have saved my life. It also maybe did nothing and I was just lucky. If ur skiing in Ave Terrain and ur too cheap or impatient for an Ave course, read this book. It will teach you where to definitely not ski and how to read terrain/snow pits. I am happy to give you my copy.

Also def practice with ur beacon.

Also it gave me some interesting insight as to why there has been mass accumulation of snow in Utah this year and how that probably won't be the case so much when Salt Lake dries up :/
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Deathtoy4444
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 1,2025
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As someone who has had some experience in the backcountry, mostly skiing in the Alps, this book opened my eyes to how ignorant I've been and just how careless I've been. Although I *always* go out with my shovel, probe, and beacon, I didn't really know about the conditions that make avalanches more likely to be caused (by me).

This book is a great reference for those who are going into the backcountry, or are thinking about it. Always read your local bulletin, if you're in Tirol, please look at the Tiroler Lawinenwarndienst! This report breaks down the conditions according to the "Danger-Patterns" outlined in the book Lawine, from the Austrian Alpine Club.

Always do an avalanche course--books don't replace practical experience.
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Leegf
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 1,2025
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A smoother, chattier read than Snow Sense. Covers more ground, particularly with stability analysis, but because it is much longer the information's also less dense (and less pointed). I do think it did a better job of teasing apart the various, almost contradictory, ways snowpack can evolve in response to weather. Unfortunately this edition came out as they were in the process of revising the North American avalanche conditions, so it's already a bit dated. Nevertheless, this book's reputation as "the other book to get" is well-deserved.
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miccah
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 1,2025
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So much information! Had to take a couple breaks because it's so dense. Definitely will come back to this one and freshen up my snow sense.
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Waveringly
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 1,2025
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This book should be read, studied and re-read over and over again by anyone planning on spending any time in the backcountry; whether that be snowboarding, skiing, sledding, snowshoeing, cross country skiing, bird-watching, etc... I plan to read this again, and again... and again. It would be wise to couple the knowledge from this book with avalanche education courses... and it is important to practice what you learn in a controlled environment so you know how to react if/when (hopefully never) it hits the fan.
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