That 3rd Antenna

Hi folks. I thought I would make a quick post to all the many students who have done avy courses with me up at Glencoe Mountain this winter. Firstly to say thanks for coming, and I hope you enjoyed it, and secondly with a bit of tech info.

This year the beacon training park is well buried with the shallowest transmitter at 2.5m and the deepest now at 6m with some in between. Its a challenging environment for beacon searching as you have had to learn deep burial techniques which are not really part of a basic avy course. You will have noticed how much easier it is for your beacon to find the shallow burials when we hid transceivers around the area for you to find on ski.

Many of you have had to switch from search back to transmit then back to search as your beacons have locked out and stalled with the processor unable to update. Even then your "pinpoint" for probing is a large grid of about 6m square at times (depending on the buried beacon orientation). This is because of "null points". Contrary to what you will have read these do occur in 3 antenna beacons but most handle them well in shallow burials.

The 3rd antenna solves null points by switching on (most often at approx 3m as a rough average) during the close range final search when you are close to the victim.  On some models this is a circle that gets smaller with arrows pointing in out out depending on if you move in or away, or it can be the appearance of a landing strip, or just an increasing acoustic tone and volume with decreasing distance, or all of these depending on the make. Distance readings can be ok on some, or jump eratically from a small to very long range in some cases.

Regardless, all these beacons are well tried and tested and reliable, but the one you own is the one you must practice with to understand how it reacts to the different scenarios an avalanche burial might present.  This does include deep burials if you are learning more advanced skills.  At a basic level we just want you to be able to conduct a basic search from last seen point in series or in parallel and not rely on "marking" then once you have mastered the basic search patterns and recovery we introduce marking to those who have that feature. Should marking fail you have a backup search strategy to put in place.

These deep burials in the park on some ocassions are so deep that the 3rd antenna is not kicking in and therefore you are effectively operating a dual antenna beacon and getting these null points. In these situations as you will have seen, your find is limited by the length of your probe (if indeed you have a long enough probe), then deep burial techniques such as "pinpointing on a line" and systematic probing from the lowest reading point is very important. No one needs to carry probes longer than 3m but a probe of less than 240cm is perhaps too short and in any case not robust.  The latest stats show that survival of a victim is poorer at depth not because of the depth itself, just that its more digging and more time and the survival window of opportunity closes as that digging takes longer.

So folks there is nothing wrong with your beacons its just that they have been challenged as have you and I. The real thing might turn out to be easier - or might not!  The old adage of train hard fight easy has some merit. Keep practicing and get fast.

RECCO News

FRENCH SKIING FEDERATION RECOMMENDS ITS MEMBERS TO USE RECCO
 
In January the French Skiing Federation decided to recommend all its 130,000 members to wear RECCO reflectors to be searchable in case of an avalanche accident. “At a low cost, the kids will always carry a locating device,” says Claude Vincendet, President of the federation’s safety commission.
In the statement the French Skiing Federation says that avalanche beacon, shovel and probe are essential but RECCO reflectors are the minimum permanent equipment to make it possible to locate an avalanche victim. With beacons and RECCO reflectors the chances increase to save lives in case of an avalanche accident.

“This is a part of the prevention work as well as talking about safety in the clubs. However, it is not a guarantee and does not exempt them from carrying an avalanche beacon. You have to learn about safety and the avalanche danger very young,” adds Vincendet, who is also president of the Sports Club of La Norma.

What are the advantages with the RECCO system?
“The fact that the RECCO reflectors are integrated in the skier’s gear, like boots, helmets, jackets, pants etc. at a low cost, the kids will always carry a locating device, and in all the ski areas the ski patrols are equipped with RECCO detectors. All the parents are unanimous, it would be a pity not to be equipped,” says Vincendet.

Are the groups equipped with beacons for avalanche rescue?
“Only exceptionally. If it’s in the program, we can book beacons for everyone at the ski school or borrow them for example from the army here in La Norma. Otherwise it is too expensive and logistically difficult to equip 60 young people. You also need to consider the management of the batteries,” says Vincendet.

According to Vincendet, the club members regularly go off-piste. He adds, “That’s a fact. The very young club members, those 7-14 year olds who grow up in a ski resort, go off-piste either together with their instructor or when they ski between two slopes, since they know the ski area well. They like it since freeride movies are very popular.”

Within the collaboration framework between French Skiing Federation and RECCO, the clubs are now offered RECCO reflectors for those cases where RECCO reflectors are not already integrated in the members’s clothing or equipment. In addition, RECCO’s safety leaflet “The Plan” will be available for the clubs.

What do you think about manufacturers who integrate reflectors into their products?
“It’s an asset, a safety parachute. That way the skier is at least searchable. Which is not the case in 50 percent of the accidents in a ski area,” says Claude Vincendet.

Several other French organizations have recommended their members use RECCO reflectors, including the French national avalanche organization ANENA (Association Nationale pour l'Étude de la Neige et des Avalanches) and the two ski school organizations ESF (Ecole Française de Ski) and ESI (L'école de ski international).

FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Johan Sauer, VP RECCO AB
Tel: +46 (0)70 655 95 99
johan.sauer@recco.com
www.recco.com


RECCO® is an avalanche rescue system utilized by more than 800 rescue organizations worldwide to facilitate the rapid location of burials. The two-part system consists of a detector used by organized rescue groups and reflectors that are integrated into apparel, helmets, protection gear or boots. Together they enable directional pinpointing of a victim’s precise location using harmonic radar but are not a substitute for a transceiver. Complementary in function, the system is an additional tool that does not interfere with avalanche dogs, transceiver searches or probe lines. The RECCO® system facilitates a faster organized search and increases the chance of being found in time. RECCO AB was founded in 1983 and is owned by its founder Magnus Granhed and the publicly traded investment company Traction AB (listed on OMX Nordic Exchange Stockholm). More info on: www.recco.com

Avalanche Transceiver Training

Avalanche Transceiver Training and Companion Recovery Training

Cost is £25.  Group Size is maximum of 8. Best if you have your own kit as that is what you need to practise with. Training contact time is 2.5 hours. Loan kit from Ortovox and ARVA is available on request.

We use Glencoe's excellent beacon training park and do search and recovery scenarios on ski, so at times it’s fairly mobile training. The thrust of the training is in the context of avalanche avoidance with these search and recovery tools being required when decisions and planning have gone awry.

Meet at 11am at the Beacon park next to the lowest “T” Bar below the plateaux Café

·                     Avalanche Forecast 101: 

Interpretation of the avalanche risk

The context. When you make a poor decision! >

·                     Beacon Searching 101: 

Phases of a search, search patterns, signal spikes, antenna orientation and smart antenna technology, Searching strategies, mark/flag pitfalls and problems

·                     Probing 101: 

Probing during pinpoint and deep burials

·                     Digging 101: 

Strategic shoveling and conveyor shoveling

·                     Victim recovery: 

Basic first aid for the victim

Ortovox S1+ Transceiver

I have been very impressed by the Ortovox S1+ this season during training.  It's more like a flip lid mobile phone and quite different form other transceivers. Unlike most transceivers that lock you on a flux line for a longish period, the S1+ seems to work out the shortest distance across the flux lines and jumps you across in a straight line to the victim.  So you just walk straight to the victim following a line on the display.  It's very fast and handles signal spikes extremely well in deep burial scenarios.

If you walk past the victim it puts you the searcher icon behind a line.

I also like the fact that you can see the position of other buried victims relative to you the searcher and their distance away on the display screen. Marking seems very good indeed and the processor monitors the buried beacons pulse rates and will not let you mark if it senses signal overlap and displays a warning hand and a "55" . This has the best mark feature I have come across. Having said that I strongly believe that every one should know the basic search patterns of searching in series or parallel and micro grid before learning or relying on the mark feature.

More details on here Ortovox S1+ Information

I think this a is a bit of a star buy and a damn good avalanche transceiver for a professional or MRT's

Transcivers, Age and Reliabity

Glencoe Mountain Beacon Training Park

One of the upsides of avalanche education is the positive take you can give on back country skiing. You are giving folks practical and thinking tools to enjoy earning their turns and getting into it. It's really just a question of making decisions based on forecasting, being observant  and also being flexible and willing to change plans. 

For example, take time to evaluate the local avalanche forecast with your friends or partners and try an apply it to the area you want to ski. Use all your senses while in the mountains and look around for snow movement and where its blowing to, feel what the snow is like under your feet. Have open honest group discussions to reach a consensus on go/no go before dropping in and getting committed. Have a rescue plan and be sure you have practised rescue drills.

I have the luck to be able to train folk on a mountain with a good beacon park for practising rescue drills and its great to see folk pop in and practise. Some of the transmitters are very deep and its interesting to observe even quite experienced folks getting thrown out by deep burials. It's also interesting to observe the use of the multitude of different avalanche beacons and their various features.

In the current range of modern digital beacons there are no bad ones. Some however are faster than others due to a faster processor. Sometimes this is because the beacon has fewer features so its not tied up with digital compass's or processing signal suppression.  Often times its slower because the operator is going too fast for the processor to update. Regardless, all the current three antenna beacons are effective and speed differences are only apparent in a side to side comparison. 

I sell three makes of beacon.  ARVA, Ortovox and BCA.  When at Joint Services Mountain Training I had a fleet of fifty four Mammut "Pulse" to keep updated and working. So I have used quite a few different models.  I can say hand on heart that if your buying a new beacon always get a digital three antenna model. The little bit extra for three antennas is worth every second of the time and oxygen it will save your friends.  

I see a lot of second hand transceivers for sale on forums at the moment. Ask yourself why these folks are selling them. I am sure most are out of warranty. Some are two antenna (thankfully no dangerous analog are being sold). Some of these two antenna beacons were state of the art in their day. And some are still quite fast and being sold from new stock. They require the user to be knowledgeable about signal spikes and practised in what that is and how to overcome it.  As I said above why are folk selling these?  I think because they know in their heart its slower and glitchy and requires more practise.  The best thing they could do is keep the old one and use to bury and find with their newer faster three antenna model.  I wouldn't sell you a two antenna one and I personally wouldn't advise buying one second hand or new.

A lonely ski found at the site of an avalanche burial in summer

So my conclusion is that a three antenna beacon is a must.  Two antennas are better than nothing but be prepared to train lots more with one, as if you don't then you won't find deep burials easily and will be probing a lot more to pinpoint a victim.  In training I have found that folk using a two antenna beacon are from one to five minutes slower depending on the buried beacon orientation and depth.

To the folk that sell their old ones I say keep them and use them for practise. To the folk buying second hand I say don't be a cheapskate over someone else's life as its not you that will be asphyxiating . However, if your that skint then any beacon is better than no beacon. 

BCA have produced a checklist for the Tracker DTS the first digital beacon.  If you have one then its worth a run through.  Tracker 1 Checklist  My advice would be upgrade to the superfast Tracker 2 or the excellent (in my view) Ortovox 3+ if you feel you can use its mark feature. The Mammut Pulse and Element and Pieps DSP Pro are also excellent but the T2 and 3+ are my favourites.