Rain, wind, snow and sudden changes in temperature. These conditions describe a typical winter day in Kodiak, and they also unfortunately create prime conditions for an avalanche.

This Sunday, Kodiak skiers, snowshoers and snowmachiners learned about avalanche safety from a pair of experts, Tucker Chenoweth of the Alaska Avalanche School and Colby Coombs of the Alaska Mountaineering School, who have served as guides on Mount McKinley

The training was aimed at winter sports enthusiasts who know their sports are dangerous, but want to accurately judge risk.

“This lecture is not about scaring you out of the backcountry,” Chenoweth said at the beginning of the talk. “It’s about giving you some eyeballs to see the hazards. I want to show you some things so you can make your own decisions.”

All it takes to form an avalanche is a snowy slope slanted between roughly 30 and 45 degrees. A slope of this angle can produce a slab avalanche, the most deadly avalanche for most outdoor enthusiasts.

At angles steeper than 45 degrees, snow falls down before it can accumulate. Much below 30 degrees it tends to be stable. Slopes that are 38 degrees have been shown to be particularly dangerous. Chenoweth described the set-up for a slab avalanche as a mattress separated from a box spring by a layer of wine glasses.

Unfortunately, great ski slopes make likely avalanche candidates. The 30 to 45 degree range corresponds to ski runs between moderate and high difficulty.

In addition to wind and precipitation other warning signs of possible avalanche conditions include evidence of other recent avalanches, cracks in the snow and whumping. Whumping describes a pile of snow collapsing down into itself.

Chenoweth told workshop attendees Alaska avalanche deaths have increased as access to the backcountry has improved. In the last 10 years, the state is second only to Colorado in avalanche deaths, despite a much smaller population.

Another trend is the increase in snowmachiners killed by avalanches. Traditionally, climbers and backcountry skiers have been the main victims of avalanches. But improvements in snowmachine technology have taken snow machines to higher elevations.

When Chenoweth asked the audience if anyone had been in an avalanche, avid snow machiner Tom Dooley volunteered a few stories. Dooley said he has survived multiple small avalanches by riding his sled and even running his engine against the flow of an avalanche.

He also witnessed two of the most recent Kodiak avalanche tragedies in recent memory. One avalanche buried his friends Rick Gunderson and Tom Abell, killing Gunderson. Another avalanche buried Abell, who again survived.

He agreed with Chenoweth that snowmachines have made it possible to access dangerous terrain in recent years.

“The new snowmachines these days, they’ll take you to places you don’t want to go,” he said.

After four hours in the classroom at Bayside Fire Department, the group headed to the Bear Valley Golf Course, where patches of snow served as hiding spots to practice avalanche rescue using avalanche transceivers.

The class also learned to search for people by probing into the snow — the slow alternative used to find avalanche victims not wearing beacons.

In addition to teaching Sunday’s class for the general public, Chenoweth and Coombs taught avalanche training classes this week for Kodiak High School and Kodiak Island Search and Rescue.

Mirror writer Sam Friedman can be reached via e-mail at sfriedman@kodiakdailymirror.com