The Avalanche Handbook [Paperback]

David McClung (Author), Peter Schaerer (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1993 | ISBN-10: 0898863643 | ISBN-13: 978-0898863642 | Edition: 2nd

Classic and comprehensive reference on avalanches, their formation, and their effects.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Don't think it couldn't happen to you. Skiers, snowboarders, climbers, and anyone else who travels in the mountains should be aware of the awesome destructive power of avalanches and the conditions that cause them. The Handbook is a comprehensive guide to avoiding such a calamity of snow and ice--and how to improve your chances of survival if you're caught in one. With a combination of science and practical advice, the authors explain how avalanches happen, how to test a slope for slide potential, and how to navigate in avalanche-prone areas. This is essential material for winter recreation fans and outdoors enthusiasts.

Review

The Avalanche Handbook is the uber text in the field of avalanche science. -- Outside Bozeman

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Product Details

• Paperback: 271 pages
• Publisher: Mountaineers Books; 2nd edition (October 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0898863643
• ISBN-13: 978-0898863642
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.2 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,101,028 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A thorough introduction to avalanche theory., November 20, 1998

By 

Tom Wolfe ([e-mail]) (Canmore, Alberta, Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Avalanche Handbook (Paperback)

For backcountry enthusiasts with a science background, this book provides a thorough introduction to avalanche theory. The book is divided into chapters which build a solid foundation (weather systems, snow structure) through snowpack basics (snow strength and deformation, snowpack structure) and well into more advanced concepts (snowpack analysis, avalanche prediction, search and rescue, and even control with explosives, etc.) It is an excellent, if heavy, read and I found it a valuable resource in the development of an intro avalanche course.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Too scientific for most, but the best overal resource, September 24, 2004

By 

P. Mulligan (Lake Tahoe USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Avalanche Handbook (Paperback)

If you have a significant interest in Avalanche science and theory, or are going to take an avalanche course this is the book for you. If you are looking to create advanced Avy skills and/or to become an Avy professional though this is the definative resource on Avalanches. It is required reading for most courses (starting with avy 1).

I believe that for most recreational readers this book does at times get "heavy". Its easy to lose interest in this book from time to time as the science overcomes the practical. If you are a weekend backcountry traveler and are looking for a book that will keep your attention and teach you how to travel safely in Avy terrain this book is probably a little much. Staying Alive in Avalanche Terrain by Bruce Tremper is a much easier read and has all the most important information from this book. Combined with Snow Sense by Doug Fesler the two books are much more digestible for the average reader and a lot more fun as well.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Indispensible but quirky and murky, January 17, 2008

By 

Timothy Byrne "tbyrnestl" (Seattle, WA United States) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Avalanche Handbook (Paperback)

There is a lot of information in this book, and it's certainly a must have for anyone who wants to be able to make their own decisions about travel in avalanche terrain. That said I think the book fails in two important ways. It fails at explaining the current state of the science behind avalanches, and it fails at giving end users a systematic way to utilize data from snow instability tests.

We get bits and pieces of the science behind avalanches but at a very superficial level. You learn something about the sorts of things scientists think about avalanches without learning the why and wherefore of it. The authors' reluctance to inlude anything that even smells of math turns the science sections into collections of things one might say about avalanche science at a dinner party, but otherwise not very useful when it comes to applying the science to avalanches.
When it comes time for the book to lay out a paradigm for making decisions in avalanche country, we find a confusing mess of very abstract decision schema. Nowhere do we find any specific guidance in using instability tests or snowpack profiles in making decisions. This lack of guidance is exacerbated by the skeptical stance the book takes towards stability tests. We are counseled to pay attention to local conditions, but we are also told that if our tests show a stable snowpack they should be discounted. It's not clear how stability tests could ever yield anything other than a no-go decision given that sort of paradigm, and the book needs to do more to explain how to navigate the grey zone if it to be useful as a handbook for making decisions.
So while this is an indispensable book, it could really use more work, and anyone wanting to understand the contents should probably be ready to dig into the nuts and bolts of the underlying science a bit more using other resources.