When travelling in back country terrain, especially when ski touring or climbing, most people will now carry, at the very least, avalanche transceivers, probe and shovel. This is the basic avalanche safety equipment needed to dig out, or get dug out, of an avalanche.

So, if the worst happens you have the right gear to make a rescue attempt. Think of this scenario:  You are si touring and you and your partner are avalanched. Your pal is buried in snow. They have just a few minutes to live before they are suffocated. You located your partner with your transceivers. You find their exact location by sticking a probe into the snow. You dig them out with a shovel.

Avalanche transceivers

There are many different transceivers on the market. A trusted contact, Gordon Fraser, of Anatom, suggests the BCA Tracker 1, which retails at £179. He says: “This is the preferred choice of mountain rescue teams because it is so easy and fast to use. It’s intuitive and requires little explanation. Of course, you do need to be with someone else to make sure you are rescued.”

The BCA Tracker 1 is available at Freezeproshop.com, mountainspirit.co.uk and braemarmountainsports.com

This winter we will be carrying the BCA Tracker 1 with us. I hope we don’t need to use it but if we do I’ll be reporting back.

Avalanche probes

Probes come in different lengths and are used to locate a buried person. As an example, Mammut sell probes in 240cm, 280cm and 320cm lengths.

The Mammut Avalanche Probe Plus 280 is the minimum that has been recommended to us. The only disadvantage of a longer probe is the additional weight when carrying it but what are a few extra grams when it could save your partner’s life?

The Mammut probes are made from aluminium. You can buy some probes made of carbonfibre, which are lighter, but not as strong. They are also much costlier.

The Mammut probe has a simple design and a strong tip. It splits into 40cm segments, which are held together when being used by a strong cord. This is similar in construction to a foldable walking pole.

The probe has 10cm markers, so you would be able to assess how far into the snow you are plunging. It comes in a stuff sack with some useful emergency procedures illustrated on the side.

The probe weighs 210g and offers a good compromise of strength and weight.

I have seen this priced at between £14 and £55 on-line. See Mammut for further details.

Avalanche snow shovels

Again there are many on the market but Mammut caught my eye because it offers a range of shovels with some good features. The Mammut Alugator Super Light Shovel retails at £45.

Snow shovels are useful for:

• Digging people out of avalanches
• Digging snow holes
• Resting your stove on when there’s a lot of snow on the ground (so I’m told!).

The Mammut Alugator is made from hardened and anodized aluminium. This means it’s strong and lightweight and also looks well made.

The advice is to avoid plastic snow shovels. Although they are lighter they are not as strong. Also make sure that the shovel feels easy to use.

Mammut Alugator Super Light Shovel features:

• The shovel is easy to carry and fits into a small backpack.
• The shaft is of triangular shape instead of a cylindrical one, which adds to the rigidity of the grip.
• The handle is a fixed length, and this means it is strong and light (however a longer, extendable handle will give extra leverage when digging snow and ice, which can be very heavy).
• The clip point where the handle meets the blade is very well designed and looks strong and robust.
• The location point is angled so that the shovel can be clipped together quickly and easily, and even when wearing big gloves.
• Two small holes allow a sling to be threaded through, which means it can be used as a snow anchor.

See Mammut for further details. Shop around in good outdoors stores or on-line for Mammut products in the UK.