With
the arrival of some real snowfall and wintery conditions, the ski conditions
have drastically improved.
But with the new snow came plenty of avalanches in the backcountry
around Crested Butte. If you are
just now digging out your winter sticks and brushing the dust off your beacon,
here is some recent news and important reminders about avalanche beacons.
John
Barkhausen of Prescott College recently published his research about whether
electronic devices interfere with avalanche beacons. You’ve probably heard rumors that having your phone turned
on could affect your beacon’s performance. John tested this by systematically checking the effective
searching range of a beacon and with different electronic devices turned on,
such as cell phones, iPods, GPS units, radios, SPOT locators, and digital
cameras. The good news is that
these devices have very little effect on a sending beacon (i.e. the buried
victim’s beacon). The bad news is
that a number of electronics significantly reduce the ability of a searching
beacon to pick up a signal. IPod’s
and cameras were especially bad.
However, when a searching beacon is held more than 40 cm away from the
various devices tested, interference is essentially gone. This is about arms length away. So the bottom line is hold your
beacon away from your body if you have any electronic devices on. It’s probably a good idea to turn off
your cell phone and reconsider using a chest-mounted GoPro. If you’re listening to your IPod, then
you probably didn’t hear the rumbling collapse that would have warned you of
dangerous avalanche conditions in the first place.
Another
recent study in Europe showed that novice/average users failed to find the last
burial victim in a triple burial scenario in roughly 30% of rescue
scenarios. This was attributed to
failure of the marking function that most modern beacons are equipped
with. While multiple-burial
marking functions are a great addition to beacons and can save precious time,
it is important to remember that they are not fail proof. The bottom line is that you need to
practice backup search strategies too.
For more information about these techniques, check out http://beaconreviews.com/transceivers/multipleburials.asp If beacon searches are a foreign skill
to you, check out one of the many avalanche classes offered in the valley.
And
lastly, some friendly reminders.
Don’t use rechargeable batteries or lithium batteries in your beacon;
they could cause unexpected loss of power while you’re out in the
backcountry. Make sure to change
your batteries when they get near 50% power; lower power can reduce effective
search ranges. Make beacon
checking part of your daily routine, and most importantly, Practice! Practice!
Practice!
Zach Guy
No comments:
Post a Comment