Q&A for How to Survive an Avalanche

Read the part of this article called "Surviving if You Get Buried in the Snow" for details. In summary, try to create an air pocket around your face so you can breathe. If you hear people nearby, try calling to them, but otherwise stay quiet and still to conserve energy. The air available to you will last longer if you can calm down and slow your breathing, extending the crucial time period for rescuers to find you before you run out of air.

No, the car might get buried and you would be unable to open the doors or windows. The windows and windshield might also shatter.

If you're buried less than a foot, you could try to dig yourself out. But if you're buried a foot or more stay put, create an air pocket, and conserve air and energy.

It depends what type it is, but you will never be able to out run it and you should run to the side to try to avoid it.

Avalanches can be caused by heavy snowstorms, new snow, earthquakes (even mild tremors), people or animals disturbing the snow, and extremely loud noises.

No. Avalanches are generally caused by tremors, earthquakes (even tiny ones), people, animals, sudden movement, and loud noises. There are usually no warning signs.

Eating the snow will only use up enough energy to warm you, and is not an effective way of removing snow.

An avalanche won't have many warning signs, if any. However, if you see one try to jump or run to beyond where the avalanche started. It won't be able to get you there.

Theoretically if you were in an enclosed space underneath the snow, you would be exhaling CO2 without any way to get more oxygen than what's already in the space, so eventually you would suffocate. However, this is unlikely.

No, it would not.

Stick your arm straight up before the snow settles to see how deep you are. If your fist does not reach the surface, you are either buried deeper than a foot, or you are upside down/ angled.

Be on avalanche slope. It only comes and goes in a minute, so you can easily survive there.

Yes, it can. However, it's hard to go deeper. Either way, you should save your air. If you breathe too much you will basically get an ice coat around your air pocket, which will make you have a hard time breathing. Even with a hole to breathe, the snow around you will still affect you.

It's possible, but you would have to be pretty deeply embedded in the snow to be crushed. It's possible with an avalanche though.

You will die. If nobody rescues you, your oxygen eventually runs out and you suffocate. If you have enough oxygen, you will likely die from exposure.

Then you can try to dig yourself out and call for help. Most likely though, rescue services will be scouring the area after an avalanche for anyone who might have been involved.

There is around a 90% chance of survival if you can be found within the first 15 minutes or so, but it drops quickly to about 30% in the next 30 minutes, and at around 90 minutes it drops again to around 10%. This assumes that you didn't sustain any trauma (which is the leading cause of death due to an avalanche). Basically, if you are fully buried and didn't have any trauma, you have roughly 15 minutes to be extracted. If you are buried longer, it depends on a lot of factors, but the absolute most amount of time you'd have is 90 minutes.

Try to ski to the side, where the avalanche won't be able to get you. Make sure you don't wear the wrist straps on the poles when skiing off piste, as this will prevent your arms from being able to free yourself if you are buried. Some people can outrun the avalanche, but normally when the avalanche hits, you are right in it. Try to stay upright and ski to the side.

Yes, I've heard about one in Pakistan. They can happen anywhere there is a mountain with snow on it.

It depends on a lot of factors; you can survive, but you also could die in a lot of different ways, such as: getting crushed by snow, trauma, suffocation, being throw off a cliff, etc. How quickly you might die also depends. Did you make an air pocket? Did you sustain any trauma? If you don't sustain any trauma and make an air packet, you could survive for 15-30 minutes.

Get on top of something so if snow gets inside, you'll probably be higher than the snow. Then wait for help (you could also shut the windows so the snow has less a chance of getting in the building).