I, like most backcountry skiers and snowboarders, have never been one to subject myself to the whims and orders of authority figures. After all, that's one of the greatest things about venturing beyond the ropes and past the dictatorial rule of your friendly, neighborhood ski patrol under whose dominion millions find comfort every year. But sometimes even the most iron fisted ruler can make a few good points. And the one thing that those folks have had reiterated to them over and over, even more than the inadequacy of their stupid plastic "slow" signs to actually dictate the speed of patrons, is safety.
So when first you venture out past the safety bubble of ski patrol, be prepared to make a certain number of seemingly obvious acknowledgements. The first, and no doubt most obvious thing is that you are alone (or with a few friends) and while this is probably the most appealing aspect of your trek, it's also the most dangerous. The difficult part is that the extent of your solitude cannot be completely realized until you are in a time of most need. So, just like the red coated tyrants preach, the most important thing is to be prepared with both the necessary gear and the necessary knowledge.
Gear first. There are certain things without which no one should embark. Each member of your party should be equipped with his own avalanche beacon, probe, shovel, as well as the knowledge of how to use them. Obviously no one wants to get into a situation where these things are necessary, but if they are, being familiar with them and knowing how to use them is literally a matter of life and death. I should note that these items are not listed in order of importance. They are the triumvirate of backcountry exploration, whether you're doing it on skis, snowshoes, or yak train and any trip without a single one of them is begging for trouble.
Once you get out there, you need constantly to be alert to the situation: potential structural hazards, assessing the snow pack, etc. Even if the snow pack is stable at your pit, be conscious of the alliterative dangers presented by couloirs, cornices, and crevasses. All of the standard stability and sheer tests to make sure you aren't setting yourself up to trigger a slide and following the precautions suggested by the people who make a living saving people from these situations should obviously be adhered to.
But no matter how careful you are, there is always are always unforeseen circumstances. Because if you could foresee them, they wouldn't be unforeseen, even if, on hindsight, you see that you should have seen the scene coming beforehand. That's when the three pounds of safety gear that you have been slogging along comes in handy.
The first step after an accident is one that has been touched on a few times, but it is really the most important when it comes to life in the backcountry: assessing the situation. If there has been a substantial slide, make sure that the circumstances are appropriate for you to approach. While immediately leaping to your friend's aid is a fairly natural reflex, the situation could become even more dire if it's not safe for you to venture forth. Then the two of you could be in trouble with no one to help. But once it's safe, use your beacon to locate the victim, your probe to find his exact position, and your shovel to dig him out. It's that simple. At which point you move on to the later paragraphs.
If a number of people have been involved in a traumatic accident, the second step after making sure it's safe is one of the most grisly and difficult: performing triage at the scene. This involves mentally dividing those involved into three groups: those obviously beyond help, those in danger unless you act quickly, and the "walking wounded."
Those who fall into the first category are sometimes easy to spot - no matter how good your healing touch, decapitation is a fairly irreconcilable ailment - but more often, especially when it comes to avalanche injuries, the problem is caused by trauma of some sort. Basically, if someone looks as though they are too far gone to be helped, they probably are. This is one of the hardest decisions to make, but it is also the most critical; there's no reason to use your finite resources on those for whom they will likely do no good. It's best to concentrate on those who need you.
These people fall into category two: those who are still alive and stable, but may be in danger if you fail to act quickly. For such cases, look to the ABC's of first aid: airway, breathing, and circulation. If one or all of these attributes is inhibited, do whatever possible to rectify the situation, probably by performing CPR. The difficulty when dealing with a backcountry skiing scenario is that, if given a no pulse, no breathing victim, it is difficult to ascertain whether he is dead or hypothermic to the point of having a nearly undetectable pulse. To answer this question, the only option is to continue performing CPR while doing anything possible to warm the victim. Essentially, a downed comrade should not be considered deceased until WARM and deceased.
But looking to more favorable conditions, if these three characteristics are stable, we can begin to consider the next of our conveniently alphabetic status scale: Disability, with the most important stage being consciousness, the levels of which can be determined by the awkwardly pronounceable and sophomorically humorous acronym of AVPU. In descending order of consciousness, these letters stand for: alert, verbal stimulus (capable of answering simple questions), painful stimulus (only responds when you hurt him), and unresponsive (rather straight forward).
Once the critical ABCD's have been stabilized, you can begin to set to work on the fundamental parts of first aid - stopping bleeding, splinting broken bones, easing the pain, etc. - before moving on to evacuation. Because these answers vary with every situation, it would be useless to try to list possible ways of getting back to safety. It is important, however, to keep track of all that you know about the situation and what steps you have taken to help and be able to recount them to rescuers once you get back to civilization.
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