NOTE: Winter backcountry travel is often a strong focus of avalanche safety. There are many important aspects of avalanche safety at the national and regional levels as well. This post discusses avalanches at the national level, in both the first and third worlds, and also contains links to very personal stories of avalanche involvement. I'll let you decide which is more tragic: national failure or individual failure.
Avalanches As Natural Disasters
The Avalanche Handbook briefly discusses Ian Burton's "richer is better" rule of thumb. This rule applies to natural disasters, and it implies that wealthier societies are better equipped to protect themselves from the wrath of mother nature.
With respect to avalanches, this rule of thumb does not apply in the Western world because many people who choose to expose themselves to avalanches, such as helicopter skiers and backcountry skiers, can only do so because they have sufficient resources.
Avalanches Worldwide
In the third world, poorer is definitely worse. The following articles highlight the difference between avalanches in the first world and avalanches in the third world. It's an eclectic mix of expensive Western engineering, helicopter skiing, and grinding third-world poverty.
- Salang Pass Avalanches, Telegraph UK, Contains Graphic Imagery!
- Salang Pass Avalanches, United Nations, Contains Graphic Imagery!
- Salang Pass Avalanches, United Nations, Contains Graphic Imagery!
- Avalanche Control, by United Nations FAO
- Review of The Avalanche Enigma, Sports Illustrated 1966
- Tragedy On Bay Street, Sports Illustrated 1991
- Snow Blind, Sports Illustrated 1991
- Avalanche!, Sports Illustrated 1982
- A Deadly Avalanche, Sports Illustrated 2003
- A Thin, White Line, Ted Kerasote 2003
- History of the SLF, SLF Switzerland
- How Are Avalanche Bulletins Produced?, SLF Switzerland
- Planning Avalanche Defence Works For The Trans-Canada Highway At Rogers Pass, NRCAN
- The Snow War, ParksCanada
- The Swiss Guides, ParksCanada
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