Pictures and video are from a February 2023 evacuation in a remote corner of Hokkaido, Japan. 

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I look back at my early years of ski touring with equal parts awe and horror. 

We’re all bulletproof in our own twenty-year-old brains, and, if you survive that decade of mountain life unscathed, you can recount a great many tales of close calls and stupidity around the campfire for the rest of your days. There is beauty to such naive young scrappiness, and blissful ignorance, but with the luxury of time, I take a long stare and a deep sigh as I reflect on how unprepared I was.

So what’s in your backpack, friend? And what’s in your brain? How have you prepared yourself to deal with the worst-case scenario? What muscles and reflexes have you trained to deal with an injury in the backcountry? To self-evacuate an injured person when no one else is available to come to get you?

If I’m up on a soapbox here, it’s with the hopes that you can learn from my miles behind a camera, directing ski films, and equally now setting skin tracks as a Ski Guide with the Association of Canadian Mountain Guides (ACMG). With any luck, some of these morsels may save someone's life, and, at the very least, they’ll make you a better backcountry partner. 

While on a recent ski trip in Hokkaido guiding clients, one client had a fall. It could happen to any of us. Unfortunately, the fall resulted in an injury where the client could not ski or walk. So our mindset immediately switched to (a) contacting authorities and (b) figuring out how to work together to evacuate the client.

It turned out okay but the experience showed the true danger of an evacuation deep in the backcountry.

So, here we go, with a non-exhaustive list of what I carry in the backcountry, designed to be light enough that it’s in my pack every day. This kit can be divided amongst a group as well, but be in the habit of doing a verbal checklist with your crew before you leave the house each day. Not at the trailhead by the time it’s too late. 

Disclaimer: This does not replace formal medical or rescue training, and I’d highly recommend taking a course to actually integrate the information below. 

If you're interested in learning these skills in a backcountry environment, please feel free to reach out. 

Safety

Before attempting a rescue in the backcountry, make sure that you are not subjecting the group to unreasonable risk. Moving a heavy person through avalanche terrain and the strain of the exertion is intense. Walk through the plan before you start moving to make sure that it's reasonable. 

Rescue Toboggan

This is a purposefully designed tarp that doubles as an emergency shelter and a way to haul an injured person out of the backcountry. It’s light enough but will withstand the forces of hauling a 200+lb person through rugged terrain.

Go out in early winter with a few friends and practice packaging and moving someone through simple terrain and snow.

Does it work best to move with the fall line or across it? Where do you want to position your people hauling? How much rope do you need? Did your packaging of the victim come apart after moving or was it comfortable and also stayed together? What communication do you need as a team to work effectively?

Practice, practice, practice…

Gear:

• Rescue Toboggan
• 5 meters of 3mm accessory cord for packaging the victim
• 15-20m of 4mm accessory cord for hauling the victim (I usually have this pre-cut in 3 strands: Front, back, side)
• Half-length Thermarest (can be used to elevate the victim off the snow to keep them warm or as a splint/head brace)
• Optional 120cm sling and locking load-bearing carabiner

PRO TIP: I vacuum seal the rescue toboggan and Thermarest into a flat sleeve that I slide into the frame sleeve in my backpack. This keeps it out of the way, takes up less bulk, and I hardly notice it’s there most days.

Warmth

As soon as possible, you’ll need to trap heat around your victim. This means getting them off the snow onto a backpack, wrapping them in emergency down jackets, keeping them dry and sheltered in stormy conditions, placing body heat pads on their stomach or armpits, and wrapping them in a heat reflective blanket. If you’re transporting them, this can all be built and layered inside of the rescue toboggan. 

Gear:

• Reflective bivy and heat blankets
• Heat pads 

Communication

What are your nearby Search and Rescue resources? I often carry 3 tools to communicate with me, depending on the area I'm in. 

Gear:

• Cellphone with SAR, helicopter companies, and hospital numbers saved in contacts
• A Rite-In-Rain Notebook with all the above numbers written down analog
• InReach Mini with Garmin App downloaded to my phone (I send a test text to a friend before leaving on a trip)
• Backup USB battery and charging cables for both devices above
• UHF/VHF Radio with programmed channels of SAR, local helicopter companies, ski patrols, guiding operations, and other relevant local resources. 

Navigation

If a storm came in, would you be able to navigate and bring a victim back to a trailhead?

Gear:

• Cell phone loaded with downloaded maps in Gaia and Fatmap
• A second cell phone in the group with the same maps above for redundancy
• Compass and paper map for multi-day trips
• Experience using these tools and knowing their capabilities

Shelter & Firestarter

Have you ever built a fire in a storm in the snow? Are you confident in your abilities to get a fire going in almost any circumstance? Could you build a shelter in the snow that would keep a small group warm through the night?

• Tarp above
• Practice with Improvised shelter techniques
• Fire Starter and multiple lighters in a group (in double ziploc bags)
• Snowsaw/brush saw for cutting branches/collecting wood in the field

Repair Kit

• Multitool
• Spare bits
• Ski straps x 4 (minimum)
• Zip ties
• I carry a spare toe piece and screws specific to my binding
• Spare parts specific to your group/setups

First Aid

• CPR face Mask
• Ibuprofen, Tylenol, Aspirin
• Recording chart for vitals, etc.
• Sam splint
• Quick leg splint
• Small bag for biohazard garbage
• Ziploc for snow (icing injury site)
• Gloves ( 3+ pairs)
• Compression dressing
• Adhesive strips “elastoplast”
• Wound closer “steri strips”
• Non-Adhesive dressings
• Roller gauze dressings
• Tensor bandage or crepe
• Triangular bandage
• Leukotape 1’’ x 5 meters
• Alcohol swabs
• Safety pins (large)

Personal Gear

To put it simply, you have to make sure that you stay warm and safe during a rescue, and that you do not become a liability yourself. 

• Headlamp and extra batteries (the minimalist ultralight headlamps will be fairly useless for any navigating in the dark)
• Extra mittens/gloves
• Extra warm layers
• Extra emergency food

Hopefully, you won't need most of this gear on most of your tours.  But when you do, you and your backcountry partners will be thankful you were prepared.

Nick Waggoner, ACMG Ski Guide & Director at Sweetgrass Productions

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If you're looking for entertainment for your next birthday or bar mitzvah, Nick is currently taking bookings for the 23-24 winter. Beyond balloon animals and the electric slide, he'd be happy to educate you in any of the above or show you around a BC hut trip or his favorite haunts in Japan and the Svaneti region of Georgia. He can be found in Nelson, BC and/or electronically at [email protected].