"I could not see anything or do anything and my mouth was filled with snow," recalled the 29-year-old Briton who triggered the snow-slide while boarding off piste in France in February 1997.

Despite being thrown off three cliffs, Bailey survived with just a shattered left leg and plenty of bruises, but each year some 100 less fortunate people, many of them skiers and boarders, die in avalanches in the Alps.

Safety experts in Switzerland, where one quarter of these deaths occur, are anxious to reduce this figure and have launched free avalanche awareness classes at 10 ski stations nationwide for those who venture off piste.

"People from the city often know nothing about avalanches so this gives them a basic idea," said Felix Maurhofer, a spokesman for Swiss Cableways, a national cable car group, which runs the scheme with the Swiss Alpine Club.

Held at a different resort once a week by a professional mountain guide, the three hour class complements other information about skiing off the beaten track found at chair lifts, in tourist centres and on the Internet.

"It is important to know the dangers in order to make an informed decision on whether a risk is worth taking," said Swiss Alpine official Tanja Peter.

The two organisations began the limited series of lessons this season after a trial run last year and plan to introduce more in the future as they feel such schemes are vital to raise awareness and reduce Alpine tragedies.

The most common avalanche -- a slab avalanche -- occurs when the connection between two layers of snow breaks, often due to a person's weight as they slide over it, explained Birgit Ottmer, a spokeswoman for the Swiss Federal Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research.

"About 90 percent of avalanche victims nowadays trigger the avalanche themselves because they are too heavy for the snow cover," Ottmer said.

The institute provides Switzerland's official avalanche warning twice a day on its website.

"This is important for tourists who go off piste and also for professionals who are responsible for avalanche safety in their community," said Ottmer.

The greatest risk of an avalanche is after a heavy snowfall, especially if the weather is good and many people are out on the slopes enjoying the fresh powder, the spokeswoman said.

If an avalanche occurs, the first thing to do is to try to ride out of it.

"But usually this is very hard as you lose your orientation and so most people end up falling," said Ottmer.

When this happens, you should try to kick off your skis or snowboard, because they act like an anchor dragging you down. Also hold your arms in front of your face to create a pocket of air because if you survive the actual avalanche the next danger is suffocation, according to the experts.

"Then you have to wait and hope that someone digs you out," said Ottmer, noting that people should carry some sort of alarm to alert others if they are buried in the snow.

For the greatest chance of survival, an avalanche victim must be rescued within 15 minutes, which is usually too short a window for the rescue services.

"Professional rescue teams very often just find dead bodies," said Ottmer.

A growing number of skiers and snowboarders are leaving the black, red, blue and green slopes to venture off piste, which is fine provided they follow the safety advice, experts said. The problem is that many choose not to.

"The powder is always freshest where the boarding is riskiest," said one young snowboarder in the Swiss resort of Verbier who gave his name as Josh.

As for Bailey, his 1.5 kilometre tumble in Les Arcs -- which was over in just 45 seconds -- taught him a huge lesson on how to respect the elements.

"You have got to respect what is out there and not take things for granted," said the professional sportsman, who went on to win another British snowboarding championship three years after his accident.

TERRA.WIRE