When it comes to big mountain snowboarding, without a doubt, the number one fear is avalanches. Whilst you can be the best snowboarder on the planet, an avalanche doesn’t care.
An avalanche doesn’t care how many medals you’ve got, how many sponsors are stickered on your board, or how many followers you’ve got on Instagram; an avalanche is indifferent to your skills, and it’ll take you if it gets the opportunity.
Avalanche safety is best practiced by preventative measures when it comes down to it. You’ve got to respect the mountain, and look for signs that it’s not happy with you being there. You can have ABS backpacks, shovels, beacons and probes, but in an ideal world, you should never have to use them in your lifetime.
We’ve rounded up some of the gnarliest footage on the web, from riders’ perspectives, and also from huge, awe-inspiring/sphinchter-contracting controlled avalanches to give you an idea of the respect that mountains are due.
That black dot at the bottom right is Victor Daviet about to be given the worst Alaskan welcome you can imagine.
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