r/Backcountry

Hey everyone,

About 3 years ago I was caught in an avalanche while ski touring. I was incredibly lucky — I ended up buried but with one hand sticking out, so my friends were able to find me quickly and dig me out. I had no injuries and was even able to ski away afterward.

Physically I walked away fine, but mentally it’s something I still carry with me. Since then, I sometimes get pretty nervous in the backcountry — to the point where I’m not always enjoying it the way I used to. The fear can feel a bit irrational at times, and it comes up every other day.

This winter has been especially tough with the persistent weak layer situation in Austria. It’s made everything feel more unpredictable, and I’ve noticed my anxiety is worse. I also sometimes get the impression that my ski touring partners are starting to lose patience with me, which doesn’t help.

I’m curious if anyone here has gone through something similar after an avalanche or close call. What helped you work through it? Did it get better over time, or did you approach things differently?

Would really appreciate hearing your experiences.

The most important winter we rolled out this past winter has been avalanche forecasts (from the local government avalanche bulletin) and user-submitted observations on avalanche activity and snow conditions.

In our latest update, we've added to that with avalanche problems (e.g. wet snow, persistent weak layer, etc.) visible directly on the map.

The app takes the information from the local avalanche report, and generates an overlay showing the risk based on the report and the surrounding terrain.

It's a great tool to quickly visualize problem sections on a planned or proposed route before even heading out.

Of course, the devil is always in the details and the avy report is no exception. We recommend also reading the report to gain a deeper understanding of how the snowpack is behaving, rather than just a couple words describing the most prominent avalanche problem. After understanding teh report, the overlay is great to have while heading up the route.

This is now included in our latest update as of writing, v5.92.

Have a great touring season and stay safe!

Avalanche problems overlayed onto our 3D maps.