Snow Sense: A Guide to Evaluating Snow Avalanche Hazard

by Jill Fredston, Doug Fesler

"Snow Sense" is the best-selling, easiest to read, most informative avalanche safety book available. Intended for skiers, snowmachiners, snowboarders, climbers and others who work and play in avalanche country, "Snow Sense" is written to help backcountry travelers learn to recognize, evaluate, and avoid snow avalanche hazards. Avalanche accidents do not happen by accident; they happen for particular reasons. "Snow Sense" addresses the critical terrain, snowpack, and weather variables that make it possible for a slope to avalanche along with the human factors that allow most accidents to happen. If you don't want to become an avalanche victim, read this book.

Genres: Outdoors, Mountaineering, Nonfiction, Reference, Climbing, Adventure, Guides

120 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 1994

Reviews

[Markus Christoph schneider]

A must read for winter mountain explorers as it is very factual and helpful.

[AC]

Concise, pragmatic, and engagingly written primer on recognizing hazards and making good decisions in avalanche terrain. Use this as a quick-start guide and refer to the service manual (Bruce Tremper's 'Staying Alive in Avalanche Terrain') with further technical questions.

[Kelsey Barklund]

Good book to have lying around the house to freshen up on your avalanche knowledge at the beginning of each snow season.

[Nathan]

This book does a fantastic job of the "high-level" information that one should assimilate to assessing avalanche danger in backcountry travel. I like how it was concise and skips over many technical details to favor building a well-informed opinion based on "bulls-eye" information.

The content covers a triangle of important factors potentially leading to accidents: human factors, weather, and terrain. The short length of the book makes all of the information stick with one and helps one build a general "sense" of the conditions (an informed and continually updated intuition).

That being said, the authors' main goal is not to bog one down in too many details and signs toward assessment. In that sense, I feel that this book is best accompanied by a more technical guide (on mountaineering and backcountry travel).

[Jon]

A solid update from previous editions. There's not much new from a technical or scientific perspective, but the material is rearranged (snowpack comes last now), a few paragraphs tightened up, a few expanded. I don't think this is a must-upgrade (although including the new hazard scale is nice), but it remains a very good, focused introduction and reference to survival in avalanche terrain. It's interesting that they provide almost no information on beacon search, probably a good idea since it's somewhat device-dependent and hugely reliant on hands-on training. I did occasionally find the writing getting a bit "slippery" and had to reread a few sentences to regain the flow of discussion.

[Ben]

Clear, basic book on avalanche awareness and understanding. It covers terrain selection, weather effects, snow pit tests, navigation through dangerous terrain, and (at a high level) beacon and probe searching techniques and tips.

Importantly, the book is relatively concise and does not spend a lot of time repeating itself. This makes it an excellent first-time introduction read as well as a great refresher.

[Ian]

Got some good information that helped me go into an avy 1 course with a good foundation of knowledge. The skills in it are, as with any avy skills, important to practice a lot before putting your life on the line. Always check what the professionals say, but this book will help you understand it better and make decent observations when you're in the field.

[Mike]

Very concise book, that gets right to the point. I'm a total beginner at avalanche safety, but I feel the book stressed the dangers of traveling in avalanche areas well. Ample pictures to help illustrate snow/slabs/rescue techniques/etc. Quick to read, and I'll most likely read it a few more times this winter.

[Ben]

A good introductory book for prior to a first avalanche course or another more in-depth book on the topic. Has a good tone of being factual and realistic, yet without making the risks terrifying to the point of dissuading the reader from enjoying snow sports.

[Justin]

If you or anyone you know EVER ventures out into the snowy mountains, you MUST read this book at the very least. if at all possible, get into a solid multi-day avalanche hazard evaluation course. Too many people die every year from preventable mistakes in the winter wilderness. Read this book!

[David Collins]

Informational, but not the greatest.

[Kimberlybrennantyler]

A must read for anyone going into the back country. It is the most simplified, user friendly approach to complex information that I have read.

[Samuel Kordik]

Excellent book on the knowledge side of understanding avalanches and how to predict them in the snow around you. Exceptionally cautious, eminently practical, and quite thorough. A good resource.

[Matt Heavner]

If you want to know snow, especially for backcountry and avalanche knowledge, this is the "goto" book. It is information dense and I'll definitely be re-reading it several times. Good stuff!

[Wade]

I have read this 4 times. A good preseason refresher. A must read for anyone touring the backcountry

[Rich Christiansen]

The basics without lots of extra fluff.

[Martynas]

Short and concise essentials. New season starts with this book.

[Carolyn]

best avy book ever! excellent info we should all be taught in school