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Book tip | SAB Hochtouren Booklet

New reference book from the Ă–AV's "Safe on the Mountain" series

by PowderGuide • 11/25/2016
The Austrian Alpine Club combines the various facets of its training program under the umbrella term "Safe on the Mountain" (SAB). In addition to the SAB courses on various mountain sports disciplines for section members, there are the so-called SAB booklets, in which the relevant teaching content can be found. In addition to the already well-known booklets on ski touring, via ferrata, sport climbing and mountain biking, there is now Hochtouren - Sicher unterwegs im vergletscherten Hochgebirge.

The booklets are richly illustrated, landscape-format paperbacks that present the doctrine of the Alpine Association in a precise and understandable way. "Alpine tours are the supreme discipline of mountaineering" (quote from the Ă–AV), which is why the Hochtouren booklet is probably more extensive than the others and about twice as thick as the Skitouren booklet, for example. The latter deals almost exclusively with ski touring-specific topics - essentially with the Stop or Go method and the procedure in the event of an avalanche emergency. Hochouren, on the other hand, also deals with more general topics that are not only relevant for the glaciated high mountains.

The design of all booklets is uniform. Superordinate chapters are divided into various sub-chapters. Thanks to the many pictures and vivid graphics, you don't feel overwhelmed by too much text and the big-nosed people by illustrator Sojer, familiar from other AV publications, liven things up. Each booklet comes with a kind of flyer in credit card format, which summarizes the most important content in bullet points.

Contents of alpine tours

After some introductory remarks ("What are alpine tours"), an equipment chapter deals with the necessary material, from clothing to ropes, crampons, ice axes and other hardware to emergency equipment. Finally, equipment lists for a few challenging sample tours provide an overview of the additional equipment potentially required depending on the route chosen. This is followed by a comprehensive chapter on orientation (use of map, compass, GPS) and weather (basic information on weather conditions, fronts), as well as a chapter on correct tour planning (tour selection, current conditions, group).

The heart of the booklet are the chapters Moving on rock and ice - how to walk and climb correctly in different terrain, crampons and ice axe use, etc. - and Rope technique. In Rope Technique, important knots are explained, as well as how to build a belay station on rock and ice, rope team building on glaciers and elsewhere, and belay and rescue techniques.

The booklet ends with a short first aid chapter and the 10 recommendations of the Alpine Club for alpine tours.

Conclusion

The Hochtouren booklet is a useful reference work, not only for alpine tours, but also as a useful addition to the other SAB booklets. Would make a great Christmas present, perhaps in combination with the Skitouren booklet!

Of course, you should not only read books, but also practise their contents, for example in a course run by the local AV section.

Note:You can win a risk'n'fun avalanche training course here!

The alpine touring booklet costs €29.90 in the ÖAV Shop (€24.90 for AV members).

The ski touring booklet costs €14.90 (€12.90 for AV members).

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