Even when using an airbag, never forget an avalanche beacon and a shovel.
Never take excessive risks, even with an airbag!

This device, available since 1991, consists of two plastic balloons integrated into a rucksack. In an avalanche, pulling a string causes the balloons to fill with 120-150 litres of a mixture of nitrogen and air in a few seconds.

In an avalanche, the skier can avoid being completely buried by reducing the total density of the skier-balloon unit with respect to the snow density and by using physical effect of "inverse segregation” (larger grains remain on the surface (15)), so that the deep-snow skier or the backcountry skier is only partially buried or remains on the surface of the snow.

During the period 1991-2002, 40 cases were documented in which people with airbags were caught by avalanches. Of these, 39 survived. One person was buried with fatal results in spite of the fact that the airbag deployed. In order to be buoyant, it is necessary that a skier be carried a short distance by the flow of an avalanche. If a person is trapped in avalanche debris and is buried by a second avalanche, buoyancy is no longer possible.

The Airbag lowers the risk of complete burial from 39% to 16.2% and reduces the mortality rate from 23% to 2.5% (16). Based on these statistics, at the present time, the airbag is the most effective safety device for decreasing mortality due to avalanche burials.