Customer Reviews

Snow Sense: A Guide to Evaluating Snow Avalanche Hazard

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

"Here's a book you should have. I know, I know, everybody says that but this is different. This book lays out what avalanches are and how they happen, and it will save your life. Now notice I didn't say this is a book you should have on your bookshelf. This one should be in the top pocket of your pack. Simply put,"Snow Sense" is a pocket guide to safe snow travel, whether you're hiking, backpacking, skiing, snowshoeing, or mountaineering in high risk areas.

Avalanches don't simply explode out of nowhere. The ones that kill people are usually started by the victims. This book will teach you that such catastrophes are avoidable. You can learn to recognize and evaluate avalanche hazards. You can learn to "read" the snowpack, "read" the mountains, and save your skin. "Snow Sense" is a hands-on, explicit, clear-thinking, hard-hitting field guide that teaches you how. By studying the book's "bulls-eye" clues to snowpack stability, hardness tests, shear block tests, weather analysis, simple physics, and hazard checklists, you'll come away with all you need to know about avalanches and how to avoid being caught by one.

Read it once. Read it again. Take it into the field and practice the skills it teaches. Every time I hear of another avalanche-caused death in the Rockies, I wish the victim had read this book. The survivors must read it.

Used by avalanche professionals as a base for avalanche education classes. Small size but HUGE on concise information for learning to recognize, evaluate, and avoid potential avalanche hazards.

As a longtime Alaskan, I feel fortunate to have had both Doug and Jill in many courses. The book Snow sense is now the required reading material for all Nat'l Ski Patrol avalanche courses, and rightly so. I read it at the begining of every season. True avalanche professionals. If you ever have the chance, come to Alaska and take one of their courses.

"Jill Fredston and Doug Fesler are the best avalanche instructors in North America, period. No other teachers have more credibility or put as much effort into the curriculum, presentation, and teaching methods...Their book "Snow Sense" is by far the best material available on staying alive in avalanche country."

"Avalanches are not acts of God. This valuable book details how to read terrain, snowpack, and weather variables to determine the possiblities of avalanche and how to save yourself in case of one.

This is must read material for anyone who will be traveling in backcountry terrain. I grew up skiing on the east coast and am moving out to the rockies this winter : I wanted to get serious about touring and this book was recommended to me for preparation.

This book was a recommended text for an Intermediate Backcountry Skills course at Saratoga, California's West Valley College. It discusses physical and psychological hazards in winter backcountry travel. You'll learn what to look for (stay away from cornices and lee slopes if possible), and how best to travel.

The book could use an index. I found myself making subject-page number notations on the backs of the covers and frontispieces.

No book is all-inclusive on this subject - nothing substitutes for instruction and lots of personal experience - but Snow Sense and Mountaineering: The Freedom of the Hills together will point you in the right direction.

Well written, organized and concise. A ski area patrol person used it as outline for a presentation at our nordic club meeting. Made me want to get a copy.