[twopass]

[skibum]

The results makes sense to me. The snowmobiles cover a lot more terrain and they are heavier. So their impact on the snowpack has to be great.

[geekthegreek]

Uh, sure, but snowmos have a far, far greater ability to escape the consequences of a slide. Like, grabbing the throttle and roaring uphill to safety while the slide rumbles down underneath them. And the fact that when a slab breaks loose under them, they aren't immediately thrown on their asses like most skiers are (like pulling a rug out from under your feet). I'm not a sledder and I don't like them, but they do have huge mechanical advantages when it comes to getting out of tight spots.

The avy professionals I've spoken to have expressed that a very different education and risk profile exists between the backcountry self-propelled crowd and sledders. I reckon this has a lot to do with the accident stats.

[Snowman]

You really need to put it in the context of the number of user days for each group. Snowmobiling is a huge sport in north america. Figures on the number of user days per activity are hard to impossible to find with any confidence, but it's very possible that snowmobilers have the same or even a lower fatality rate than skiers on this basis. But there's no truly reliable way to know.

Something I read recently estimated that well over 70% of winter backcountry use is snowmobiling. I have no idea where that came from though, and I wouldn't rely on it. But if it's even close the figures don't come out so bad. IF 2/3 of backcountry use is snowmobiling (just for the sake of an example here) then there would be 2 days per each one skier day. 17 skier deaths would translate into 34 snowmobile deaths. And the rate would be more or less equal.

[Nick (AT)]

[twopass]

[twopass]

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