The core of this idea and the aim of all relevant training courses on the subject of risk management in winter terrain is the fact that avalanches are a damn dangerous thing and that you should focus all your actions on avoiding them.
Just as a reminder: the risk of dying in an avalanche, the so-called mortality risk, is approximately 1:5 without an avalanche airbag and 1:10 with an airbag. A third of all avalanche deaths have already been caused by mechanical circumstances after the avalanche has stopped.
Unfortunately, this didactic endeavor is repeatedly neglected by the visual trivialization of avalanches in videos of major ski productions. The professional athletes always seem to manage to escape the snow slab. One should be aware that this scenario is the exception and not the rule.
The current occasion for this repetition of the familiar - stating the obvious - is an episode of a web video series starring Xavier de le Rue. In his series, which is marketed under the names "Shred Hacks" (for Red Bull) and "How to XV" (for Deeluxe), de le Rue shares his experience and knowledge of mountains and splitboarding in several videos. Topics such as "how to ride with ice axes", "how to splitboard" or "how to choose your line" are covered.
In his video, which Red Bull has given the awkward title "How to avoid avalanche danger", Xavier de le Rue shows how he deals with the risk of avalanches in his lines. The following subtitle is "How to manage avalanche risks". It is, one might think, about classic risk management, as has been standard for 20 years.
From the correct statement that there is no such thing as zero percent risk (i.e. 100 percent safety), a cut leads directly to the recommendation to always ski as if a potential avalanche were about to occur. The intention to look for safe spots in a descent makes perfect sense. In principle, this takes up the standard measures of common strategies such as "stop or go".
