Did Everyone Get Home Safe?
- Henry
- May 8
- 5 min read
Did everyone get home safe? One of the defining questions in avalanche safety, “did everyone get home safe?” implies more than just shooting a text to your mate after an awesome day in the powder.
It is a mantra to approach skiing. A good day is a day when everyone makes it home to their friends and families. A good day can only be a good day when everyone makes it home unscathed to their families.
Long used by avalanche researchers and guides to manage expectations and set objectives, getting everyone home safe should be everyone’s responsibility. This can be achieved in so many areas, from skiing in control and with due consideration for others on the piste to tackling avalanche risk conditions in the off piste, to just making sure everyone’s accounted for after a long and hard après session.
So as part of your end-of-day debrief and your in-the-moment decision making, I challenge you to consider the question “did everyone get home safe?” and see how it might affect your skiing.
On Piste
There is a general feeling that skiing on piste has become more dangerous in recent years. There isn’t necessarily the data to back this feeling up, mostly because no-one has done the research more than it has been definitely proven or unproven.
But some things are true. Pistes are becoming busier, with the number of skiers returning to pre-pandemic levels during the 2023/24 winter season. And whilst more, better, faster and higher capacity chairlifts are being introduced year after year, the same can’t be said of the runs themselves; Tignes-Val d’Isere has had 300km of pistes as long as anyone can remember, despite the lift system being improved year on year.
More injuries are occurring, that much is known. A combination of complacency about skiing ability and lack of ski fitness, especially post-pandemic, is thought to be to blame.
Whether from a lot of things or a few things, the question “did everyone get home safe?” is becoming harder and harder to answer positively.
But there are things you can do to help. Ski conservatively at all times, keeping within the FIS guidelines for skiing – give way to the downhill skier, stop in smart places, give plenty of space when overtaking, and stop to help in the event of an accident are just a few things from these guidelines that can help. Always ski in control, too, managing your speed and direction for your level of skiing, not anyone else's.
Don’t be afraid to take lessons, either. In this Instagram day and age, it is so tempting to throw yourself down a piste to say you’ve done it, to get a good reel, or just to keep up with friends. But be humble; admit when your skiing isn’t keeping up with the conditions, the slopes, or your friends, and don’t be afraid to spend the money to fix it. After all, the only way you’re going to get good enough to send those big lines from a Nikolai Schirmer video is through improving, not just existing, as a skier.
At Après
I don’t know if you follow quite as many skiing accounts as I do on Instagram, but there has been a definite uptick in reels and clips of people really getting their après ski on.
Don’t take this the wrong way, I am all for a big après. Some of my best ski days – ever – have finished at Cocoricos in Val d’Isere, up on a barrel throwing shapes after one too many overpriced beers. But if you are après-ing on mountain, such as at Folie Douce, stay in control.
The risk of injuring yourself after having too much to drink – or worse – and skiing down the hill go up exponentially. Make sure you give yourself enough time to ski down slowly, including to make the last chairlift, and remember, just because you are off snow doesn’t mean you’re out of the woods. Ski boots aren’t know to be the grippiest things in the world, so make sure you don’t slip up on ice patches as you return to the chalet!
And of course, if you see someone having a nap in the snow to let the booze wear off - friends or strangers - help them; hypothermia can quickly set in, especially as temperatures plummet at night, so just getting them up and on their way can be potentially life saving.
Off Piste
This is where the meat of the question really comes onto the plate.
“Did everyone get home safe?” is, for many guides and avalanche professionals, the only question that matters at the end of the day. If you put clients, colleagues or friends and family in harms way throughout your ski day, you’ve added risk and put a positive answer to this question at risk.
What is this question trying to ask in this context? Yes, on a simple level, its asking you to take a serious and critical approach to avalanche safety and avalanche decision making. Know the avalanche and weather forecast, understand your snowpack, and make smart decisions to survive avalanche risk terrain.
But it strikes to something more important than that, especially to skiers in the UK who may only get a week away each year, and want to make the most of it.
On a deeper level, it forces you to ask the question “is the risk I’m taking worth it?” and completely recontextualise your avalanche decision making. Instead of looking at an awesome slope with great powder, but a known avalanche risk, and saying “I have to ski it to make the most of my holiday”, instead we should be saying “it’s not worth the risk, it’s success enough that everyone gets home safe.”
This is even more true as more and more people push out into the backcountry. You might only be a few metres from reaching the col or summit, or the perfect powder line might just be around the terrain trap-y corner, plus it’s the last day of the holiday so you won’t get a chance to ski it again this year! Stop, take a step back, and understand that everyone getting back to the chalet that evening after a big après session is far more important than potentially or actually jeopardising your and the group’s safety for that powder line, col, or summit.
It doesn't mean you can't have fun whilst skiing; it asks you to find alternatives to "fun". Go score some awesome low-angle tree laps - some of my best days have been dancing in low-elevation, low-angle tree laps - or stop, adopt, adapt and improve to ski somewhere else that, given the conditions and context of the day, gives you a certainty that this slope can't.
Final Thoughts
As skiers who don’t live in the mountains, it’s far too easy to fall into the heuristic trap of “I don’t get to ski here that often; I need to make the most of my time here”. But, understand, it is far more important to get home safely at the end of each day, than it is risk the lives and safety of you and your friends, for a few minutes skiing.
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