Book Review: The Starting Zone

If you are looking for a good gift idea this holiday season, one that will expand the snow knowledge of your friends and family (or maybe yourself), look no farther than Karl Birkeland's recently published "book" The Starting Zone, available from avalanche.pressbooks.pub ($49.95).

I put book in quotes because The Starting Zone is an e-book available from the Friends of the Colorado Avalanche Information Center.  The Starting Zone is a living document, with tons of figures and videos and more references than you can shake a stick at (these are footnotes, so they don't clutter up the reading).  Everything is hyperlinked, allowing you to watch videos or access supporting materials with the click of the mouse or a tap of the finger (I read it on my tablet).  

I am not an avalanche professional or researcher, so my perspective is of a scientist in a complimentary field (meteorology) who has been backcountry skiing for more than 30 years but has little formal avalanche training.  I loved that the book was written in plain English with many opportunities to dig deeper into subject matter.  This appeals to my practical and sciency sides.

Karl is an excellent writer and does a great job of simplifying complicated subject matter.  I found the chapter on Dry Snow Metamorphism to be especially insightful.  I finally understand the differences between near surface facets and surface hoar and can now better explain the physical processes that distinguish metamorphism that leads to facets vs. rounds.  Karl utilizes laboratory experiments to illustrate many concepts, with extensive use of videos and images from micro-CT scans.  This also appealed to my sciency side, but also my bias toward visual learning.  I much prefer to be shown something rather than be told something or forced to infer from equations. 

There is one oddity with The Starting Zone.  It is still in the runout zone.  Sections I (Laying the Foundation) and II (The Mountain Snowpack) are finished and available except for one section (Spatial Variability at Multiple Scales).  The final section (Avalanche Release, Mitigation, and Forecasting) will be released by Fall 2025, although all three sections of the book are included in the purchase price.  Think of this as an opportunity to advance your eduction as you creep out on the slab but before you feel the collapse, hear the whumpf, and are carried down the hill by the snowy torrent.  Perhaps what you learn from Sections I and II will keep you from creeping out on that slab in the first place. Not everyone in that situation gets a second chance.