The Off-Piste Awareness Tour 2019
Henry’s Avalanche Talk (HAT), which over recent years has become a leading source of advice on the dangers of avalanches and how to avoid them when heading off piste, is launching a tour of venues in the UK to give skiers and boarders the chance to gain valuable advice on saying safe in the mountain.
The 2019 Off-Piste Awareness Tour will kick off next month and includes more than 30 live events in venues across the UK, along with several in France.
The talks focus on how to manage risk when skiing or snowboarding off-piste and are aimed at all levels of riders from off-piste first timers to experienced veterans looking to reinforce their knowledge.
Participants can sign up for The Essentials Talk, billed as a must see talk, full of essential information for all off-piste skiers who want to have fun and be safe, no matter how experienced you are, and the In-Depth Talk for anyone who has attended the Essentials Talk, and providing an in-depth look at one subject: Henry will explore how and why avalanches are triggered.
The main theme for this year’s talks, above and beyond learning and refreshing ‘the essentials’, is ‘application’, as it becomes increasingly clear that the vast majority of accidents are caused by individuals not applying decision making and risk reduction measures; and this is because of human factors and flaws that are magnified within a mountain environment. The solution is a risk reduction framework that Henry and his team will be introducing and building on across all events.
“We’re going to discuss the latest lessons from recent research on the Human Factor and how it applies to decision making and risk taking in the backcountry and off-piste skiing,” said Founder of HAT, Henry Schniewind, who added, “Why is it that when there are clear clues indicating danger, people who should know better and have the basic training needed in order to recognise these clues, still get caught out in avalanches?”
There’s also the chance to try some Transceiver Training and get hands on practice with avalanche transceivers. This is a practical session in the UK where you learn how to use a transceiver, shovel and probe to locate a victim in 5 minutes and dig them out in 15 minutes.
Tickets cost £15 per person for the talks and £60 per person for the transceiver training sessions.
There’s an ‘early bird’ discount of 20% available up until September 30, using the code hatearlybird
All the UK talks, which are sponsored by ORTOVOX, will take place in Ellis Brigham stores and the Transceiver Training sessions are held in outdoor spaces suited to hiding and locating objects in the ground.
Full schedule:
The Essentials Talk – Ellis Brigham Stores, cost £15 per person
• Covent Garden – Wednesday 23 October 2019
• Manchester – Wednesday 30 October 2019
• London St Pauls – Tuesday 12 November 2019
• Castleford – Tuesday 19 November 2019
• Braehead – Wednesday 20 November 2019
• Cambridge – Wednesday 27 November 2019
• Grenoble – Wednesday 04 December 2019
• Val d’Isère – Wednesday 18 December 2019
• Covent Garden – Tuesday 07 January 2020
• Val d’Isère – Wednesday 22 January 2020
In-Depth Talk – Ellis Brigham Stores, cost £15 per person
• Covent Garden – Thursday 24 October 2019
• Manchester – Thursday 31 October 2019
• St Pauls – Wednesday 13 November 2019
• Castleford – Wednesday 20 November 2019
• Braehead – Thursday 21 November 2019
• Cambridge – Thursday 28 November 2019
• Grenoble – Thursday 05 December 2019
• Val d’Isère – Thursday 19 December 2019
• Covent Garden – Wednesday 08 January 2020
• Val d’Isère – Thursday 23 January 2020
Transceiver Training – outdoor venues, cost £60 per person (3 hour session)
• Sandbanks – Sunday 20 October 2019
• Wimbledon – Sunday 27 October 2019
• Wimbledon – Friday 01 November 2019
• Wimbledon – Sunday 03 November 2019
• Sandbanks – Sunday 10 November 2019
• Wimbledon – Sunday 17 November 2019
• Ilkley – Saturday 23 November 2019
• Manchester – Sunday 24 November 2019
• Wimbledon – Monday 30 December 2019
• Sandbanks – Sunday 05 January 2020
• Wimbledon – Sunday 16 February 2020
