Risk treatment is the step following assessment and forecasting. It is how one plans to alter any of the factors contributing to the risk by changing the hazard or the vulnerability or exposure of the element at risk.

Fundamental to our efforts in avalanche risk management is to reduce our vulnerability by providing the opportunity to find and recover someone who has been buried. We do this through using and practicing with companion rescue equipment and ensuring there is a rescue party that is not exposed to the avalanche potential. We also need to be able to mount a search and rescue within the limited time of expected survival.

In treating the hazard, consider which component is being addressed; what can you do to change the problem, its likelihood, or its size?

For field operations, the short-term measures employed are of principal interest. A snowmobile guide working in avalanche terrain will rely on indirect measures such as policies that dictate the level of training required to enter different classifications of terrain, and what gear she will be required to carry.  Exposure control such as employing a zone list with the coding of Open or Closed, as well and implementing sound group management are direct measures. 

Ski area personnel assigned to avalanche reduction work will be reliant on indirect policy and procedure such as the type of explosive ordinance they are permitted to use, carry or, deploy and the type of personal protective equipment required to participate in their workplace environment. An avalanche transceiver, probe and shovel are all industry standard, but increasingly, ski areas are equipping route personnel with air bags to reduce vulnerability in the event of an involvement. The individual’s ability to artificially trigger an avalanche using their approved ordinance, performing a slope cut, or in some circumstances mechanical compaction of a weak layer starting in the early season are all examples of direct measures employed by field operators.

An organization’s risk treatment will fall in line with its operational risk band. Even after mitigation efforts have been employed to reduce the risk to as low as reasonably possible, some risk remains. This residual risk cannot be eliminated and organizations and their field operators will decide to take action, or not, knowing that some uncertainty will always remain. The possibility of a low-frequency event, such as a historic avalanche cycle destroying a lift terminal, is acceptable for a ski area knowing that this is extremely rare and that other short and long-term measures will be employed to reduce the likelihood. However, a backcountry guiding operation cannot accept the risk of a low-frequency event such as this impacting a yurt where overnight guests and guides are sleeping.

Long Term Direct Measures

Short Term Indirect Measures

Long Term Indirect Measures