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Breckenridge Ascent Series Evening Rando Races

By Lou

Interesting how some resorts embrace uphilling and others freak out about it. More here.

This should be fun for backcountry skiers or ski mountaineers local for something a little different and quite social.

Posted by Lou on March 8, 2010 | Filed Under Rando Racing | 10 Comments

Avalanche Beacons on Dogs?

By Lou

My dog Princess, circa 1982. No avy beacon on her for this trip.

I’ve heard the cynical (and sometimes deep-down honest) joke that a dog’s life might be more important than an over-populated human’s. But most people that put beacons on their pet canines probably wouldn’t sacrifice their dog over a human friend or loved one. Which begs the question, do backcountry skiers who install standard frequency avalanche beacons on fido think all this through? Or are they just doing something that feels good at the moment or even seems somewhat novel and hip? Sort of like the booze barrel on a St. Barnard out on rescue missions in the Alps?

I’ve been there. Back in the late 1970s and early 1980s I had a husky named Princess that I loved dearly. For a while I strapped a beacon to her collar during jaunts in avy terrain around Crested Butte and Aspen.

But it didn’t take long for me to realize that placing a standard frequency avalanche beacon on a dog was ridiculous, if not downright criminal. To put it honestly, I value human lives over animal lives. If a dog was buried along with another person, and I dug up the dog first while the person died of suffocation, in my opinion that would be nothing less than negligent homicide. What’s more, anyone who’s been involved in an avalanche rescue with multiple individuals knows that a crux move is getting everyone’s beacon turned to receive, so they’re not transmitting and thus confusing. Having a dog prancing around with a transmitting beacon would just add to that sometimes nearly insurmountable problem.

Considering the above, it concerns me that anyone would beacon a dog, and that applies to trained rescue dogs as well. Sure, SAR dogs are valuable. But if an avalanche hit a rescue party you were with and made a multiple burial, how would you feel if you dug up a dog before you got to a human? I’ve seen a few ski patrol avy dogs with beacons on their harnesses — bogus.

Anyone care to weigh in?

Posted by Lou on March 8, 2010 | Filed Under Avalanche Beacon Reviews, avalanches | 52 Comments

Ortovox 3+ — New Avalanche Beacon for Fall 2010

By Dostie

(Please bear in mind that the following “first look” is for a pre-production tradeshow avalanche transceiver “beacon.” Our policy here at Wildsnow.com, after being burned numerous times, is to only do in-depth reviews of beacons that are in production. Nonetheless, nothing wrong with hitting the highlights of the sweet little unit Ortovox is planning to release this fall.)

Ortovox 3+ demo unit, production unit will have rubber armor.

There’s a new avy beacon coming that promises something truly different for backcountry skiers and others dodging the white beast. Ortovox’ 3+ (production planned or this fall) has the ability to automatically switch which antenna is transmitting, depending on which of the two largest antennas is most horizontally oriented. Result, since beacon searches are done with the beacon held horizontally, is that the two beacons will “talk” to each other as loudly as possible since their antennas will always have the same orientation. Thus helping improve the performance of every beacon on the market. But read on, there is more. Read more

Posted by Dostie on March 5, 2010 | Filed Under Avalanche Beacon Reviews | 19 Comments

Report from Andorra — Ski Mountaineering World Champs

By Cathy

Slogging up through fresh snow in the grey light of early morning, with yet more falling around us it looked as if the Individual race of this year’s Ski Mountaineering World Championships might be about to end before it had ever started. I was out as one of the volunteers that set the route and man the race control points, breaking trail for a race due to start in a two hours time. A muddle of voices speaking Catalan came over the radio as the organizers frantically tried to come up with an alternative line free of avalanche danger but still challenging enough for a world championship.

Start of men's senior Vertical Race, 880 vertical meters in 39:50.

The bi-annual Ski Mountaineering World Championships in currently taking place in the tiny principality of Andorra, deep in the Pyrenean mountains of southern Europe. www.canillo2010.org We huddled, shivering, at our control point, sharing a thermos of coffee with fellow volunteers, watching a helicopter sweep across the slopes of the final climb and descent of the race, dropping avalanche bombs to stabilize the snow. The course had been modified, shortened by four kilometers and 260 vertical metres, reduced to three climbs rather than four. But at last, an hour late, the race was on.

Posted by Cathy on March 4, 2010 | Filed Under Rando Racing, Your Guest Blogs | 19 Comments

The Problem With PLBs, ACR, Spot Messenger, Etc.

By Lou

Update, March 3. Wow. Rocky Mountain Rescue Group (RMRG) persevered and solved the mystery of the ghost personal locator beacon (PLB) that’s been plaguing them like something from a cheap horror film.

Individuals from RMRG used radio signal locator equipment to try and find the unit, but rather than being left on and relatively stationary, the PLB was frequently turned off or moved around Colorado and thus hard to find. (More, the unit was not registered so the unit’s ID was not associated with any specific individual).

Fortunately, the person triggering the PLB left it on during a doctor’s appointment a short time ago in Boulder, and the ghost busters finally got their guy. Turns out the pesky apparition was a man in his 20s who ostensibly received the PLB for his birthday with a note that said something like, “here is an avy beacon, be safe.” The man never read the back of the box, and was turning the PLB on to emergency broadcast every time he went backcountry skiing. How he passed his partner’s beacon checks is unknown. Perhaps he was so clueless he not only was using a PLB as an avy beacon, but also expecting it to get him dug out from an avalanche with no one else present? More here in Denver Post article.

According to the Denver Post, the unit ended up being triggered nine times over a 12 week period, thus scrambling various law enforcement and SAR teams.

Common sense says this sort of thing will happen more as PLBs end up in broad use, thus rendering the units somwhat useless as SAR teams and other entities end up having to carefully evaluate each alert before fully responding. To prevent their eventual obviation, personal locator beacons need three things they don’t have: Rudimentary texting for two-way communication, mandatory or at least stronger registration requirements, and some sort of warning that the PLB has been triggered and is communicating with authorities. Perhaps a speaker could be built into the unit that loudly proclaims “you have triggered your PLB emergency mode, call for rescue will ensue in 30 seconds, if you triggered this by mistake please turn off your unit NOW – 10 – 9 – 8 – 7 -6…”

Your comments, oh esteemed readers of WildSnow?

Posted by Lou on March 3, 2010 | Filed Under News Backcountry, Technique | 77 Comments