Spitting to determine which way is up

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Claim: Spitting to determine which way is up is horribly poor & inaccurate avalanche advice

"Spitting to tell which way is up" is an old mountaineering joke. Chances are, even if you survive the avalanche, you'll have snow so packed around your face, in the dark, that you won't be able to breathe, much less spit.[1] Furthermore, spitting while entombed poses a gagging risk.[2].

Here are some actual examples of avalanche survivors spitting. First, here's what happens when you open your mouth while the snow is still fluid:

"Feebly I tried to swim with the slide to stay near the surface, and forced myself to spit the snow out of my mouth to keep my airway clear. As soon as I would spit, my mouth would again fill with snow forcing me to repeat the process"[3]

Here's someone who tried the spit idea after the snow settled:

"I made an air space with my shoulders and then spit to figure out which way was down but there really wasn't anyway for me to move."[4]

To sum up: if you have enough airspace that knowing which way is up is actually useful, you have enough airspace that any snow that you dig will fall downward. Generally, however, you don't have that kind of airspace.

[edit] Analysis

Oppose: Actually, if you let spit dribble out of your mouth and depending on whether it drips up ur face or down ur face, you'll know whether you're upside down or not. You can feel it, you don't need to see it.

Support: You have no reference to support your claim versus the provided reference. I'll trust the author of Staying Alive in Avalanche Terrain, coordinator of backcountry avalanche safety preparations for the 2002 Winter Olympic Games on this one. Furthermore, you're entombed in snow. You expect spit to dribble, as opposed to soak into the snow?

Oppose:" A person entombed by an avalanche is most likely to die anyway without outside assistance. As far as I know, long term survivors of avalanches weren't completely buried, but stuck in air pockets between large chunks of snow. In that situation, where some movement is possible, the spitting technique may be useful. Not 100% sure though.

Support: There are no "LONG TERM SURVIVORS" of an avalanche. Roughly 1/3 of avalanche victims die in the avalanche itself (trauma from being banged against trees, rocks, etc. on the way downhill). The other 2/3 die of suffocation. Once the avalanche stops, the loose snow immediately forms tightly around you and forces its way into your mouth & nose. Movement is NOT possible - not your fingers, much less your arms, legs, or head. It is EXTREMELY rare for there to be ANY space between you and the snow. Without quick rescue (i.e within MINUTES), you WILL die very soon from suffocation.

Oppose:" Interestingly, you fail to state any sources about the third of deaths caused by trauma, also, in one of the counts of actual avalanche victims, they state they made an air space with their shoulders. If you have been in some type of new, undiscovered avalanche, I'm sure those delightful chaps at Davos will be thrilled to hear your expert opinion

Support: I've never been unable to determine which way was up. Simple feeling the pull of gravity on you should be enough to determine this

Oppose: Um, except when you've been banged around by an avalanche and are all disoriented.

Support: And when you're "banged around by an avalanche" so badly that you can't even feel gravity, and now are encased deep enough in concrete-like snow that you can't see any light from the sky, you think that you stand any chance of "digging out" on your own? You think something will stop snow from pouring into your mouth when you open it? You think something will magically let you move around to dig instead of keeping you tightly wedged in?

Support: Besides, it won't really help that much to spit. If you're at an angle, you can spit and have it dribble down your face, and be digging almost parallel to the surface instead of upwards. IF you miraculously end up in an air pocket which allows you enough space to dig yourself out, you wouldn't need to spit. You could figure it out easily enough by just figuring out which side of the pocket you're laying on and calling that "down". Otherwise you're buried in so tightly you can't move anyway.