We are launching the 2019 Off Piste Awareness Tour with ORTOVOX and Ellis Brigham. There will be over 30 live events in venues across the UK and France.

The talks focus on how to manage risk when skiing or snowboarding off-piste and are aimed at all levels of riders from off-piste first timers to experienced veterans looking to reinforce their knowledge.

There’s three different events that you can attend

The Essentials Talk

A must see talk, full of ‘essential’ information for all off-piste skiers who want to have fun and be safe , no matter how experienced you are.

The In-Depth Talk

For anyone who has attended the Essentials Talk. It is an in-depth look at one subject: We will explore how and why avalanches are triggered.

Transceiver Training

Hands on training and practice with avalanche transceivers. This is a practical session in the UK where you learn how to use a transceiver, shovel and probe to locate a victim in 5 minutes and dig them out in 15 minutes

The theme is all about applying what you know

A particular focus for 2019 will be to show how off-piste skiing and ski touring can be surprisingly safe when ‘the essentials’ are applied. However, it can be surprisingly dangerous if that knowledge is not applied.

The main theme for this year’s talks, above and beyond learning and refreshing ‘the essentials’, is ‘application’, as it becomes increasingly clear that the vast majority of accidents are caused by individuals not applying decision making and risk reduction measures; and this is because of human factors and flaws that are magnified within a mountain environment. The solution is a risk reduction framework that Henry and his team will be introducing and building on in all events.

Founder of HAT, Henry Schniewind, said:

“We’re going to discuss the latest lessons from recent research on the Human Factor and how it applies to decision making and risk taking in the backcountry and off-piste skiing. Why it is that when there are clear clues indicating danger, people who ‘should know better’ (have the basic training needed in order to recognise these clues) , still get caught out in avalanches?

“In The Essentials talk, we go into the fundamental aspects of how make decisions and reduce risks in the backcountry – Where you go and when, how you go down or up and how well prepared you are for a crisis. These skills are crucial to risk management and helping to make off-piste skiing as safe as driving to the resort itself … IF applied”

Henry also described the In-depth talks.

“Here we look at how, why and where avalanches are triggered and how you can use that understanding to help manage risk. But it’s the reinforcement of applying these strategies and how to deal with the impulsive action ‘traps’, i.e. not applying our experience and knowledge that then leads to accidents, that we explore in both talks”.

All the UK talks take place in Ellis Brigham stores and the Transceiver Training sessions are held in outdoor spaces suited to hiding and locating objects in the ground.