A v a l a n c h e

C o n t r o l ,

R e s c u e

a n d

E d u c a t i o n

Table I:Consequences for the 14 dummies involved in the test avalanche on Rosställispitz, Switzerland at 10 March 1995. Bold figures indicate

critically buried dummies. All inflated balloons were visible. 4 dummies without balloon were found by transceiver search.

wide,0.5mfracture height (mean).One oftheballoons
didnotwork,sothat6dummieswithproperlyinflated
balloon can be compared to 8 dummies without balloon.
Fourout of 6 dummies with properly working avalanche
balloon were critically buried(Figure 2) (headburied, most
in prone position,balloon visible) compared to 6 out of 8

dummieswithoutornotinflatedballoons.Allinflated
balloonswere visible on the avalanche deposit;all dum-
mieswithavalancheballoonswerecarried furtherthan
the control dummies.The consequences are summarized
in Table I.

CONCLUSIONS

Basedonthe limitednumberofpreliminarytestresults
and documented incidents:

*Theavalanche balloonseemstofulfilitsobjectiveto
reducethefrequencyandextent of burial in avalanches.

*Even whenthevictim is critically buried, there is agood
chance that at least part of the balloon willbe visible,
facilitating the quick rescue by party members.
However,human errorand technical malfunction can re-
duce or prevent the effectivenessof the avalancheballoon.

(A) Overview

(C) During recovery

Figure 2: Two test dummies with avalanche balloon buriedin prone

position in a depression (burial depth about 1 m, deposition depth: 1.5 to

2 m): (a) overview, (b) before and (c) during recovery (second prelimi-

nary test on 8 January 1995). Avalanche size: 300 m long, 100 m wide,

0.5 m fracture height. (Photos: J. Gebhardt).

(B) Before

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