Set the tone for the day with a terrain mindset

Identifying terrain options (and non-options) starts by naming a terrain mindset or a broad unifying descriptor that sets limits to your specific terrain choices. The purpose of setting limits is two-fold: first, to improve your plan and second, to help you make more consistent choices about your exposure to avalanche terrain in the field.

Specifically name the terrain you will avoid

When naming terrain to avoid, do your best to be specific. Before selecting where you want to go, first list elevation bands, aspects, terrain features, slope characteristics and even named runs that need to be avoided based on the conditions. This is a great exercise for your brain to teach you to think more critically about the avalanche problems and how and where they might lay in the terrain. More importantly, it is a more effective way to go about choosing possible trips because you have already discussed where okay to and where you shouldn't go. This process of figuring out what terrain needs to be avoided, weighing possible options, and then selecting the best ones will unquestionably set you up for success.

Plan to Manage Avalanche Terrain

Your partners play a role in terrain selection, both in contributing consensus on where to go, and in influencing terrain choice that is appropriate for your group. Anticipate the Hazard by developing an idea of where the avalanche problem will be in the terrain so that you can avoid it. Anticipate other hazards such as a slip-and-fall hazard earlier in the day or dealing with low snow coverage at lower elevations and ensure the plan accounts for that.

If you can develop a good idea of where in the terrain the avalanche problem or other hazards are likely to exist, then you can subsequently choose what terrain you will want to avoid. This process will naturally help steer the terrain selection process you are considering during the Plan to Manage Avalanche Terrain stage toward what trips are off the table for the day and which ones are reasonable to be considered.

Create a trip with options

Each trip really begins with the Investigate Trip Options habit of PREPARE. Each day, a group will PLAN a trip that draws from these options. Each of the prompts of PLAN YOUR TRIP serves to reduce uncertainty on any given day. What needs to be considered while Planning to Manage Avalanche Terrain is creating a trip with options and decision points built in prior to entering the field. You are far more likely to choose the best of multiple options and dial it back if necessary if you already have multiple route options in place. If you only have one trip planned and things aren’t going as you thought it is MUCH harder to make up a “Plan B” on the fly and then dial. Strive to have multiple options of varying levels of complexity and exposure. Specifically name what observations you need to make and the criteria that will make you feel good about continuing or what will make you choose to defer to simpler terrain.

To be clear you shouldn’t choose a trip option and then dig in the snow or make other observations to decide “yes” or “no” for all the reasons listed previously. You should build a good plan based on the conditions that set you up for success and then make observations to validate or invalidate your hypothesis about the conditions in the event your plan, assessment, or the forecast of the avalanche problem was off.

Avoid “deciding when we get out there”

Avoid being vague in your planning: it's far too easy to just “decide when we get out there” or “just see how it looks” once in the field. While this okay when it comes to snow surface conditions and travel quality, you should have a pretty good idea about the hazard and avalanche problem, where it exists in the terrain, the weather, and your group prior to getting into the field. “Seeing how it looks” should reference understanding the validity or applicability of a weather and avalanche forecast. While a group will most certainty decide when they get out there, those decisions should have clear planning behind them and guidance for critical observations required in order to make those decisions.