Avalanche Rescue and Safety Equipment

...MANDATORY RESCUE EQUIPMENT...MANDATORY RESCUE EQUIPMENT...
	Transceivers:                                     The only realistic way of finding someone buried in the snow in time to save their life is with an avalanche transceiver (aka: rescue beacon, RB device, beeper, skadi, peeps, etc.).       A beacon is a small, low-power, electromagnetic device that transmits a constant signal when turned on. The beacon is worn against the body, under the clothing. If a member of your party is buried in an avalanche, everyone else must switch their beacon (yes, everyone needs one!) to "receive". You will then be able to hear the signal from your buried friend and locate him using a special search pattern.       Try a virtual beacon search!       In the past, using a beacon to find another buried beacon within a reasonable time period required lengthy and continuous practice. New models (like the Tracker DTS) just entering the market promise to cut down on the difficulty, allowing untrained people a real chance at successful searches. This is good news for professional guides!       If you've been holding off on purchasing a new avalanche beacon because you're confused by the choices, this information may help you decide.       The Swiss have completed a comparison test by numerous categories between several of the currently available avalanche transceivers on the market. The report has stirred up controversy due to the use of testers well-acquainted with some of the units and not others, failure to test with inexperienced users and various assumptions that were made about the optimal features and function of an avalanche beacon (which--surprise!--exactly matched the Swiss Barryvox specs). The linked site includes commentary on the test and other information as well.       There is currently only one radio frequency being used in new avalanche beacons, 457 kHz. This is now the international standard. There are still some outdated transceivers out there that operate on the less powerful 2.275 kHz frequency. These old beacons are not compatible with the new ones--they will not talk to each other! At least one company (Ortovox) produces dual-frequency beacons that will work on either frequency with any beacon but you give up some power, features, sensitivity and ease of use with these units. Some tips on using avalanche transceivers: Never use rechargeable batteries! They seem fine, then drop off abruptly. Change your batteries before they discharge too low--use them in your headlamp for the rest of their life. Wear your beacon against your body, under your outer layers--don't carry it in your pack or pocket where it can be torn away from your body. Even if you tour alone, carry a beacon for other's sake--you'll save them hours or days of looking for your carcass. Some worry-warts think that radios, quartz watches, metal shovel blades and messages from aliens significantly interfere with beacon function--you might want to check your beacon against some of these factors. Beacons are not voodoo talismans that frighten avalanches away! Many people caught by avalanches suffocate before being located or are killed by trauma and cannot be saved even with a beacon. Use good travel and route-finding technique and get fast by practicing with your beacon! If you do not travel in avalanche terrain , you don't need a beacon. You can tour safely in the backcountry without ever entering avalanche paths if you know what to look for. BEACON MANUFACTURERS: Arva 9000 Backcountry Access: Tracker DTs Barryvox: vs 2000 Fitre: Snow Bip II Ortovox: F1, F2, M1 Pieps: 457, Optifinder S.O.S. F1-ND Shovels: Beacons don't work without a shovel, period. You can't dig him out with your snowboard, dude. Lightweight avalanche shovels are handy for many things other than digging up avalanche victims: you can set your stove on one to keep it from melting into the snow, bury it as a dead-man anchor, sit on it instead of the snow, dig a snow cave, unstick your snowmobile, ride it down the snowpacked road when your machine runs out of gas, tape it to your foot and hike out on it when you loose a ski or dig snow pits so that you won't have to dig up avalanche victims. Avalanche shovels are made of aluminum or plastic. Some folks worry that the plastic ones will break, but I think the bigger issue is that the plastic blades are often really tiny. If someone shows up on a tour with a plastic shovel that looks like a toddler's beach toy--or no shovel at all--offer to let him carry yours. =:?} SHOVEL MANUFACTURERS: Black Diamond Life-link Ortovox S.O.S. Voile Avalanche Probes:      An avalanche probe looks and works like a lightweight tent pole. Probes are used to poke around looking for avalanche victims who weren't carrying transceivers. Some ski poles screw together to make a probe--they are expensive, it's a pain to get the baskets off, the various bumps and protrusions interfere with probing and if you lose and break ski poles as often as I do you'll have to wonder how good an idea this is, anyway. Probes can be used to pinpoint avalanche victims you have located with a beacon. There have been many incidents in the past where a lot of time was lost by digging near but not near enough to the victim. Probes are also useful for locating a good place to dig a snowpit and can be used to feel the buried snow layers and assess snow bridges over crevasses. PROBE MANUFACTURERS: Life-link Ortovox S.O.S. Releasable Bindings: Skis or snowboards that remain attached during a ride in an avalanche work like levers, magnifying the twisting force on arms and legs and dragging you down to the deadly bottom of the debris. This is why professional Ski Patrollers are not allowed to use non-releasable bindings while doing avalanche control work. Alpine bindings have excellent release mechanisms for their main use in ski resorts. Although highly effective, these bindings tend to be very heavy and you'll soon tire of boot-packing up backcountry slopes with your skis on your shoulder. You can add Alpine Trekkers to these bindings that allow you to free your heel for skinning up. If you ski wicked steep and rocky terrain the weight trade off may be worth the beefy support, but alpine ski boots have slippery soles and are not comfy for hiking. You may also wish to consider this option if you only occasionally go out-of-bounds or if you mostly heli or snow-cat ski. Note: not all alpine bindings will release properly if you use an AT boot. Marker alpine ski bindings have a teflon skid plate that will allow the vibram soles to release, but it is very difficult to get DIN-test indemnified to work professionally in this set-up. Releasable telemark bindings in the past were heavy and unreliable, but the new Sky Hoy appears to bring step-in safety to free-heelers. Some things for ski-mountaineers to consider: Although plastic tele-boots are a huge performance and warmth improvement over leather, you still can't front-point in them because the extended toe-piece sticks out past the end of your crampons. This also complicates step-kicking. Free-heels suck when the snow and terrain aren't forgiving and this can be a safety issue in avalanche terrain. Voile also makes releasable tele-bindings. Alpine Touring--a.k.a. randonee--bindings allow you to free your heel for ascending and lock it down for descents. You can use alpine ski boots with these bindings, but AT boots are softer and lighter. Some AT gear is even lighter than backcountry tele-gear and you have numerous choices for releasable bindings, including the effortless Fritschi Diamir Step-In that is DIN-rated for both toe and heel release. AT boots are also great for general mountaineering: they take a crampon well for steep ice, have vibram soles and are comfortable for step-kicking (fix the heel and fix the problem!). Some other manufacturers: Dynafit Ramer Silvretta Releasable snowboard bindings are rather controversial. Since both legs are on the same plank, twisting injury would seem unlikely for a locked-in rider and most riders seem to believe that the possibility of untimely releases is more dangerous than no release at all. Unfortunately, this doesn't address the danger of deeper burial in an avalanche. Some riders rig cords at their waist and down their pant legs that they can yank to release, if necessary. Miller
...MANDATORY RESCUE EQUIPMENT...MANDATORY RESCUE EQUIPMENT...

Snow Tools:

A light weight snow saw is useful for isolating columns in snowpits and rutschblocks, sawing off cornices to test slopes and building igloos. Some of them will niftily screw onto the ski pole-probes I just talked you out of. Folding models take up less space and prevent the teeth from chewing your spare sweater, but some of the hinges are obnoxious and tend to collapse while you're using the saw.

An elaborate snow study kit might include:

        a magnifyer for looking at snow crystals;
        a thermometer or two for assessing snow temperature variations;
        a weatherproof notebook for recording weather and snow observations;
        a brush for locating and exposing snow layers;
        a compass for determining slope aspect;
        an altimeter for determining slope elevation (a map works, too) and monitoring weather system changes;
        a device for measuring the density of snow layers;
        a crystal card for feeling snow layers and isolating snow crystals for observation.

      Crystal cards may also include features for observing and measuring snow crystal size, measuring slope angles or determining them from a topo map, memory joggers for identifying snow crystal types and symbols for recording your snowpit data;

These kits are handy, if not strictly necessary for recreationists. Get one, or the pieces you feel you need, if it will remind you to pay attention to the snow and the weather.

SNOW STUDY KIT SUPPLIERS:
• Life-link
• Wasatch Touring

Avalanche Cords:

An old-fashioned, low-tech idea...avalanche cords are long strings that get tied to a person's leg and trail out behind him. The idea is that if the recreationist gets buried, some part of the cord will probably remain on the surface. Searchers can follow the directional arrows printed on the cord and locate the victim.

Avalanche cords tied to your skis are a great way to find them when they shoot off your feet on a powder day. They are a lousy way to find an avalanche victim since you can spend hours trenching through frozen avalanche debris following the cord--assuming that the cord ends up on the surface, that is.

The AvaLung:

The Black Diamond AvaLung is an interesting new product. It consists of a zippered mesh vest with handy pockets and a breathing tube attached to a snow filter on the side. The idea is that if you are caught and buried, the tube and one way valve allows you to vent your hot, CO2-rich breath out the back. This prevents CO2 narcosos and the icing up that ordinarily forms a fatal ice-mask that seals the porous snow, preventing you from breathing the supply of air that exists in even the densest snowpack. This year, the AvaLung has a new streamlined profile and lower price for those who don't want or need the vest.

If you are not killed by trauma, are able to hold onto the mouth-piece and have rescuers nearby, this device should buy you some time. Once again, I'd try desperately to avoid getting caught, rather than depending on a beacon, probe, airbag or AvaLung to maybe save me!

You should buy an AvaLung just to give praise to Jordy and the other folks at Black Diamond who voluntarily tested the vest by being buried three feet down in dense, hard-packed snow for over an hour, both with and without the vest (no snowcave)! They had a blood gas monitor hooked up so the assistants could dig them up before they blacked out--who do you trust this much? Also, their efforts have resulted in the most significant research into avalanche victim physiology ever conducted.

  Avalanche Air Bags:

Developed and used primarily in the Alps of Europe, air bags consist of a backpack with an inflatable "balloon" and small gas cartridge inside. If caught in an avalanche, you inflate the bag(s) by pulling a cord. The bouyancy and size of the balloon help keep you floating on top of the avalanche debris and may provide some protection from the trauma of colliding with rocks and trees.

These devices have not been available in the U.S. due to Department of Transportation restrictions on shipping of their gas canisters. This problem has been addressed and air bags should be available here soon. Apparently the manufacturers have also addressed complaints about the utterly useless packs and have contracted with Arc'teryx to produce nicer, more useful backpack units.

The evidence from the field is compelling: 36 actual deployments with only one fatality by Y2K winter's end (keep in mind that there aren't many trees to get slammed into where the skiing is in Europe!). As with all avalanche safety devices, however, the use of an air bag should not be interpreted as carte-blanche to ride out slides! These devices provide an increased chance of survival, but you should be aware of our tendency toward compensating behavior that ratchets our risk up higher than it was before we got the new toy. Always do everything in your power to avoid getting caught in the first place. Your brain is the only tool that will actually keep you safe in avalanche terrain, but if you engage in high risk activities, devices like this can help you stack the deck in your favor.

European service tends to suck, so here is contact information for the US airbag distributor who should have product available soon:

Recco Reflectors:
The RECCO RESCUE SYSTEM is being deployed throughout North America over the last three years. The system consists of passive reflectors that require no batteries and detectors that are managed by organized rescue groups. The reflectors are integrated into clothing and ski boots during manufacturing. There are also retail packs available for purchase that can be applied to the ski boot or helmet.

The RECCO System is not a "self rescue" system like avalanche transceivers. It is an additional tool to compliment transceivers, avalanche rescue dogs, and avalanche probes. It offers "One More Chance" for a buried person to be located. To review an updated list of Resorts and Rescue Groups that are equipped with detectors, visit the web site for North America.

RECCO North America

406-883-1861
E-mail: reccona@reccona.com

The Avalanche Ball:

A new product in the U.S. this season (2000-01) is the K2 Avalanche Ball.

The Ball consists of a small pouch that attaches to your back or pack. Inside the pouch is a collapsible, spring-loaded ball attached to a 20' line. If you are caught, you pull a rip-cord that releases the flattened ball which then expands and remains on the surface as an indicator of your burial location.

It seems to me that the Avalanche Ball suffers from the same difficulty as Avalanche Cords, namely, that you may have to trench through about 20' of avalanche debris before you get to the victim at the end of the line. We'll have to wait and see what the studies show!

Rope:

100 feet of lightweight rope (7-8mm) weighs little and takes up very little space but comes in handy for belayed cornice jumping, ski cuts and pit-digging on sketchy slopes. It's also handy as a cordelette for rigging long anchors at the Ouray Ice Park, for rappels into steep chutes, climbing short rock pitches, hanging your humid sleeping bag in the sun at camp, for sawing off cornices, z-dragging your snowmobile out of treewells and if you mark it at intervals with a safe Magic Marker you can use it as a guidon cord for avalanche probelines.

First-Aid Supplies:

Anyone who has ever had to close a bloody gapper when their ski flew off and hacked a shin knows that a first-aid kit can be incredibly handy for keeping your socks dry. Read on for more less-than-obvious reasons to carry a kit:

• medical tape is the most useful substance known to man--tape a broken ski pole back together, wrap your hands for a crack climb, tape your shovel to your foot for the hike out when you break a ski, prevent the ends of your rope and shoelaces from unwinding, leave a wind-proof note on the car, etc. The glue on medical tape isn't as obnoxious to get off as duct-tape is, either;
• an antacid tablet will tell you whether the old fogie in the group really needs a helicopter evac for a massive coronary, or if he merely ate too much salami for lunch--if it is a heart attack, a single aspirin tablet will dramatically increase his chance for recovery;
• blisters end ski tours, moleskin ends blisters.
  

Cell Phones and Radios:

Don't laugh.

My friend George went mountaineering one day and finished up late. The spring snowpack became unstable in the afternoon, so George did the right thing--he sat down under a rock and waited for the sun to go down and the snow to refreeze.

Unfortunately, someone on the road happened to look way up and spotted George and his partner hunkered down. Apparently the climbers looked uncomfortable, because the Looky-Lou called in the Cavalry.

Before long, Search and Rescue Team members were en-route and helicopters were buzzing the two climbers. George used his cell phone to call the Sheriff's department and cancel the expensive rescue.

I suppose you could also call for help.

Small, personal radios don't require a licensed frequency and are more pleasant and effective than shouting. They are rather useful for communicating with your spread out party members or your belayer way down in the bottom of the ice gully. While radios have been standard (and often required) equipment on big peaks in the U.S. National Park system for years, they have recently become popular for less committing adventures, too. These devices, along with GPS units and cell-phones, have raised a firestorm of controversy about whether or not they belong in Wilderness areas that are managed to avoid "urbanization".