Read a lot like a text book, but was super informative! I really liked the intense usage of graphs and images, and I felt like it really will be a handbook-type thing for me and backcountry skiing.

Not sure how to review this book so I won’t. I learnt so much, and won’t remember enough. Educate yourself, practice, avoid and stay safe. I love the mountains but I don’t want to die in an avalanche.

I have attended a few short snow safety courses, which have mostly been about checklists and simple rules on how to stay safe(-ish). These are also covered in this book, but in addition, you actually learn about snowpack, how the layers are formed and how they change over time in different conditions and a deeper understanding about the snowpack instead of just listing basic rules about terrain choices and snow conditions. While the book has a lot of science, it is also very approachable and quite entertaining to read. It has a good balance between science and interesting anecdotes from the long career of the author. Highly recommended to anyone who wants to learn (more) about snow safety and avalanches.

My reading goals are now about the best combinations of books for the fullest effect, and this book paired with Deep Survival and Thinking: Fast and Slow make for a slammer of risk management, group management, and decision making literature!

I read this after my AIARE course and got so much out of it, even if you don’t take an avalanche course but you work or play outside, this book should be required reading.

As a skier who has spent my first seven winters in Alta/Snowbird (Little Cottonwood Canyon, Utah) in the Wasatch range & now have spent seven winters the Jackson Hole, Wyoming in the Teton Range, I can say this book is a must have for backcountry skiers.

I have been caught in an avalanche once, it is damn scary, slides happen fast. I knew stuff but, not enough, I was lucky to come away with only a cracked rib. I knew enough to pick my line, but escape routes & how to survive. I am glad I still am alive. In some ways I was lucky.

Since then, I alway try to revisit this book EVERY fall as a refresher for for BC skiing knowledge. This book can save you life. Bruce Tremper makes this any easy to read book that that someone a better BC rider. This book is required reading if you ever take backcountry avalanche courses.

Every skier who likes to ski backcountry REALLY SHOULD read this book. Like I said before, it can save your life.

This book is our assignment for Professional Avalanche Training Level 1, that's really all I have to say so far.

I would consider it the bible of snow analysis. With everyone going out in the backcountry, it is important to read this book, understand and practice. It will save your life. I cannot stress more that information is power and there is a ton of it in this book. If you ski/snowboard out of bounds or just what to understand snow, read it!

This is kind of a textbook of “everything to know about avalanches by reading a book.” It accomplishes that mission well. As the author himself would say, nothing can replace going and taking a good avalanche course and experiencing snow and snow layers. This book is a fire hose of information that is meant to be combined with practical courses and then practice itself by going out into the snow.

It’s an excellent book, but a difficult read.

there is not much point for me to write a review; only doing this to spread awareness :)

I am only 16 pages in, but Tremper's story of getting caught in an avalanche is gripping and this quote is great: "Earthquakes, meteor impacts, and love may strike without warning, but avalanches usually have obvious signs."

Very thorough, interesting but a bit repetitive which makes it a little heavy going.

Canonical work on avalanche safety, and actually read pretty well. Highly recommend for anyone who spends time in snow in winter.