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Beacon vs airbag pack. If you could only ski with one, beacon or pack, which would you choose?
Electronic avalanche rescue transceivers (aka beacons) began retailing around 1971. Nearly a half century ago. Since then they’ve saved lives, but were never the panacea we hoped they would be. Thing is, using a beacon to locate a buried victim is only a fraction of the battle. No matter how many fancy icons and perfectly tuned antennas your rig has, it won’t prevent trauma, and it won’t dig out your friend. And digging takes way more time than most people realize.
Enter the airbag backpack. “Balloon packs” have one purpose: to prevent burial in the event of a slide. They too have proven to work. Only as with transceivers, with less efficacy than we prefer (or some sellers and the media would imply). Airbags have not been definitively shown to protect against lethal trauma (though marketing spreech might allude otherwise), and they don’t prevent burial in odd situations such as being swept into a hole or crevasse. Most disconcerting, they often fail to inflate (due to mechanical or operator error).
Considering the above, a “best practice” in avalanche terrain might be to ski with both devices. But what if you planned on having both, the fates intervened, and your situation went binary? Would you abstain from skiing, or head out the door with your friends for a brilliant day of swiping turns with an airbag, or beacon, but not both? And in that case which device would you prefer? Yes folks, it is time: Alien vs. Predator, Kramer vs. Kramer, King Kong vs. Godzilla … Airbag vs. Beacon.
ALTERNATE REALITY ONE
You have saved your pennies. You are there. At the hut of your dreams. With the best friends of your entire life, and your betrothed. The snowpack is promising — thick — midwinter in the Kokanees. You hand your partner a steaming mug of coffee (“with lots of cream, please”), sit down on the edge of the bed, and discuss the day ahead.
“Bill was outside a few minutes ago, evaluating, he says the new 200 centimeters of snow from last night is not particularly well bonded, rated moderate with an asterisk. But he thinks we can use terrain management and get some pow turns. He said, ‘It could be amazing if we’re careful’.”
Your love sits up, does a feline stretch, “Last night was the best of our lives, with this window looking up at the mountain…the firelight…this day could be the same…”
You head to the gear room, grab your beacon, click the power switch. It’s a brick, cold as the hills. Must be the batteries, you think, I’ll get some out of my headlamp. No luck. The little beepity guy, such a fearless companion from the far tip of South America to the steeps of Chamonix, has given it up for the great beacon motel in the sky.
“Is there a spare beacon around here?” you ask the room.
“Nope.”
Sitting at the dining table, you try for salvage. “I don’t have a beacon, it’s broken. You guys mind if I ski with only my airbag pack?”
“Up to you.”
You’re a numbers guy and you’ve been consuming statistics for years. Like this ditty you found on PubMed, and this one from The Avalanche Review. The former claims an “adjusted mortality rate” for buried victims is 44%, while for non buried victims it’s 3%.
You know some of this stuff is based on computer modeling, some on the study of real-life accidents. Whatever, it all validates your gut feelings: I’ll go for it. I’m airbagged. I won’t get buried — I’ve got a dang solid chance of surviving. Simple as that.
Then you remember a glitch. You’ve heard of a study that cites a “non-inflation” rate of 20%, meaning for some reason — user error or mechanical failure — the bag doesn’t inflate when it should.
I’ll eliminate the ‘non-inflation’ I’ll double check the plumbing, ski with my hand on the trigger, you think, that’ll get my odds way up there. Time for pow!
Then you remember another glitch. If my love gets buried, I’ll be unable to assist with the beacon search, I’ll just be in the way. Though I guess I could help with the digging…
ALTERNATE REALITY TWO
Everyone in the hut has an airbag, except you. Last time you looked, it was on the luggage rack of a fast disappearing bus — and your heli shuttle was loading in ten minutes. You hopped on the bird and joined your friends anyway, thinking I’ll just ski if conditions rate a ‘Low.’
But conditions are not “Low.” They’re moderate trending to worse.
Your group had agreed beforehand you would all ski with both airbags and beacons. Not as a rigid policy. Just a friendly cultural style. No one expected to be considering doing without one item or the other.
You walk into the common. Everyone is packing, “Would you guys mind if I ski today with only a beacon? I know conditions are more dangerous than we talked about at the helipad, so up to you all.”
Mary looks up from stuffing sandwiches in ziplocks, “You think that’s ethical? People get buried even with balloon packs. If that happens you’re making it a lot more likely we’ll be digging up your corpse — after maybe hours of probing. Also, everyone else is taking one for the team, hauling the extra weight of their airbag.”
You glance at Bill. “What do you think?”
“I’m willing to try finding you with a probe line and hopefully digging you up alive, if you want to tag along. But let’s vote, I don’t want any lingering grumpiness about this.”
Mary nods. “I’m reluctant, but it’s up to you.”
Everyone else agrees. It’s a landslide vote.
A friend told you he’d learned in Avy 2 that “one in two people will die if they’re completely buried. If wearing a beacon, it’s one in three.” You’d also read a study that was more pessimistic, citing about one in two. And you’d seen stuff on a website that wasn’t exactly complimentary as to the effectiveness of the avy transceiver. That’s exactly why you and your friends all use both balloons and beacons.
You’re feeling a little guilty, but the pow is calling you like gravity. You check your beacon’s battery level, and suit up. I won’t ski first down anything, and these guys can dig fast, you think. Besides, we used to do this stuff without airbags and we survived. If I’m careful today, I won’t be on the bad side of the one in three.
Okay readers, imagine you indeed have a choice between balloon or beacon — not both. And you’ve decided to make the Faustian bargain of skiing anyway. Which would you prefer to use, and why?
Don’t get left without either option. Shop for avy gear.
WildSnow.com publisher emeritus and founder Lou (Louis Dawson) has a 50+ years career in climbing, backcountry skiing and ski mountaineering. He was the first person in history to ski down all 54 Colorado 14,000-foot peaks, has authored numerous books about about backcountry skiing, and has skied from the summit of Denali in Alaska, North America’s highest mountain. For more about Lou, please see his personal website at https://www.loudawson.com/ (Blogger stats: 5 foot 10 inches (178 cm) tall, 160 lbs (72574.8 grams).
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lou.dawson.writer
32 comments
Beacon. As one who has been backcountry skiing over 50 days per year for over 30 years, my life experience brings me to a different evaluation of risk.. I’ve almost always carried a beacon, but have never had occasion to use it for anything other than practice. I’ve never carried an air bag. I focus on managing the likelihood and consequence of instabilities, because I know that’s what will actually keep me safe every single day I’m skiing. I don’t think it’s possible to know if carrying a beacon or an airbag increase my likelihood of getting into a slide (or a more consequential one) due to the heuristics of risk homeostasis, but I’m ok with carrying a beacon because it’s lightweight and unobtrusive. Not so with an airbag.
This scenario doesn’t pertain to me as I have never used, or intend to use, an airbag. But it does interest me as I study how human behaviour is altered by technology and I am curious to read the comments. cheers, dj
I am indifferent to this choice. When I carry a beacon, it is as a good luck charm. I’ve been skiing for sixty-six years and have never been in a situation where a beacon would have been useful. Same goes for an airbag. Don’t get caught. Don’t ski with people likely to get caught. Avalanches can damage or kill in many ways for which both beacons and airbags are amulets.
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This is not to say that I have not done foolish things in my foolish youth. I was lucky.
I would stick by the mantra that beacon, probe and shovel are mandatory for backcountry travel. Airbags are still considered optional.
Thanks for the reminder that I’m nearly a half-century old. 😐 I recently had this conversation with a snowmobiler friend. He asked if I thought he should get a beacon. I asked if any of his riding buddies were going to also buy them (and shovel and probe) and practice with them. No interest. Well, my first recommendation would be to find other riding buddies and get with the times. Otherwise the beacon will only help with locating your dead body, but the airbag ‘might’ save you.
One perspective is that is depends if you are skiing in a group or alone. In a group, beacons all around, airbags optional. Alone, airbag.
+1 to this
Beacon. Once it is on it is on, from beginning to end. There is no “activation” required after the initial beacon check. There are fewer likely points of failure, from operator through mechanics. And which you are carrying should bear no impact on travel decisions, anyway. If it makes you nervous adjust your acceptable risk accordingly, but be sure to consider what that means about your usual decision-making process.
Are you selfish or selfless?
The airbag is mostly about increasing your own safety and less about that of your partner (you may be less buried and thus able to help dig them out).
The beacon on the other hand, does both, but it’s more about your partner. Without it you are choosing to reduce the safety of your partners since you can’t help locate them if buried. Thus if you actually care about your partners, you should carry a beacon.
Obviously “carry both” is the better answer in most situations subject to cost, availability and conditions.
Seems like location might factor into the decision, too. In the shallow, rocky snowpack in CO, with trees up to 11,500ft, some/much of the protection conferred by airbags is probably negated. That said, AK, BC, Europe, maybe we’re getting the max advantage from a balloon. Damn, touring with friends, I think I’d have a hard time telling my teammates, “I’m not able to search for you in any time-efficient way,” were I to choose no beacon. And guiding without a beacon? “Welcome to the Jonny-Gnar Couloir, where it’s every (wo)man for her/himself if the poop hits the propeller. Arm your bags, people, it’s sending time!”
Although, I heard in Europaland, some guides were monkeying with remote-control for deploying guests’ airbags. Maybe I’m overthinking it.
Time of year probably worth considering, too.
But real world: Mammut RAS Ultralight with a carbon bottle, and a Pieps Micro–superlight and effective on both fronts!
My experience leads me to believe an airbag provides a greater statistical advantage for my choices but I’d still pick the beacon with a group because of the social contract we all seem to have.
“The former claims an “adjusted mortality rate” for buried victims is 44%, while for non buried victims it’s 3%.” That just can’t be true or it doesn’t include the cases where a small slide causes fatal falls. I live in Chamonix and while surely not representative (lots of very exposed terrain, lots of very strong and sometimes risk-friendly alpinists) I have heard of this kind of accident far too often. Even the smallest slide can be fatal if it causes you to loose your balance in the wrong place.
A beacon is not for me. It is to help find another. Perhaps it will enable me to help another. An airbag, I don’t even have an iPhone. Risk is something that is beyond quantification yet never dismissed.
I just sorta wonder if the bias toward beacons so far is another form of heuristics. Beacons are what we all know (and ‘trust’) so we default to the familiar. I’ve heard those statistics regarding survivability from more than one source. Quite a bit. Statistics beat experience, my own, or the experience of others. Experience loads bias. Bias enables errors. We’ll all pick whatever feels the best, and most just. But math says – regardless of guilt, nuance, duty, or otherwise – odds of survivability go up with an airbag vs a beacon. None of that helps if I can’t find and dig a pal out, but the scenario proposed sounds like a bigger group than just two. If I had to chose, I’d stay behind. But if I had to chose for the thought experiment’s sake, I’d say airbag. With little question.
I’d just keep resting in the hut.
If conditions are risky enough to don’t consider any route safe and didn’t have a Beacon AND an Airbag I simply don’t go out.
Risk homeostasis, as Stew notes, is the 800 pound gorilla in the room. In addition to terrain dependence, we ought not make this decision without considering the effect these tools have on our behavior. I’m not saying that everybody with an airbag automatically takes greater risks, but let’s be real. The setup of the whole scenario was a description of risk homeostasis driving decisions.
To my thinking airbags and transceivers are by nature risk homeostasis machines. Their whole purpose lies in what happens after I get avalanched. Personally, if all the information I have at a point of decision is telling me that I wouldn’t ski this line if I didn’t have an airbag or a transceiver, choosing to ski it with one or the other is a clear indication that I am allowing them to affect my decision making.
Personally, I use a transceiver as one component in an overall methodology of stacking as many odds in my favor as possible. I’d like to think an airbag would fit into that if I had one but I don’t. My point is, my partners and I do not view the transceiver as something that will assuredly save my life. But I do have to admit that it still falls on the risk homeostasis machine side of the equation for me because I would not ski in avalanche terrain at all if I didn’t have a functioning one.
But all these are only tools that address the worst case scenario, the one that I use everything I have learned in more than 40 years of backcountry skiing about how to manage my and my group’s behavior to stack the odds more in our favor. If presented with this choice, I personally would not ski if I had only the airbag. This would test my resolve in the face of awesome temptation, but I think I would pass. So I would take the beacon, shovel and probe. At least I would be able to be able to participate in companion rescue if somebody other than me were to get buried completely. I don’t say this strictly because I’ve always done it that way but because it has a well defined place in the methodology I use to stay safe. Honestly, the airbag falls outside of that methodology because it introduces further layers of uncertainty and potentially affects my decision making more than the beacon does. So for these reasons it sits lower in the hierarchy of needs for me.
I don’t use an airbag…yet, but they are getting light enough and are no longer the crappy packs they once were. In a group – I’d take the beacon – but not because its better. It isn’t. It can only possibly rescue your day while an airbag can basically help prevent the catastrophe of burial from even happening at all.
The reason I’d take the beacon is because it does double-duty. It protects me (some) and protects my partners (some) as well. Anybody who’s a card player can run the percentages listed in the article and see that a beacon is statistically the better choice. As you add people to your party, it gets better and better, because it protects each one of them equally. An airbag – it doesn’t do that.
All that said – you know…people did ski before beacons and airbags. I wouldn’t worry about leaving either of them behind – or even both. Assuming I could go where ever I wished to ski, I have no doubt that I could find an absolutely avalanche-free bump to “ski” on, even in the worst of storms. This might not make for “epic” skiing – but it is still better than a day at the office.
When I look at modern avi courses – so much of it is geared towards “playing the odds”…. I think people forget that it is indeed possible to find places where you can ski where your odds of being involved in an avalanche incident are zero, and that skiing them can be a lot of fun. The key is NOT your group, or the snowpack, or the wind, or crystal structure – its the terrain. If its pretty flat – like 20 grad flat – and your are well outside of the alpha angles of any runouts – you’re not gonna see anything slide. Including your skis – but with some practice and the right gear, you can gently ski these kinds of slopes too.
As time goes on, more and more of this gear is becoming “required”. I’m supposed to have my beacon, probe and shovel, plus an airbag….don’t forget your helmet – and a spare parts kit for your bindings. A roll of duct tape, 18 Voile straps, a leatherman, a cell phone, a backup cell phone, spare batteries, a headlamp, a spare set of gloves, a bivy sack, a puffy, something (big) to eat, 8 gallons of sports-glurp and the ever-awesome spot rescue beacon – just in case.
Using all of this equipment, on the off chance that something happens, I may be able to fix it.
It is, however, a dead certainty that I will be carrying it up the mountain and all that crud will ruin my day.
As has been said already, the beacon becomes the device that helps both you and others…I personally wouldn’t bc tour with someone who didn’t have a beacon…I’m selfish and want to live and see my partners alive as well…I carry both beacon and bag regardless of who I’m going with or if I’m going by myself…just have made it a part of the process and, like other, am trying to put the odds in my favor on a very bad day…
Back when I worked for CAIC, Knox Williams once asked in a staff meeting which tool (i.e., Transceiver, Avalung or Airbag pack) we would carry if we could only have one. Basically, everyone except Knox answered that they would take the transceiver. Knox said he’d go with the Airbag, since it is the only tool, that is intended to keep you from being buried. This was before any studies had been done about the limitations of the Airbags (i.e., going off cliffs, strained through trees, going through rocks, into crevasses, etc.). In some ways his thinking makes sense. But, I haven’t yet bought an airbag pack. I am thinking about getting one. BTW, there is an excellent article in the 38.1 issue of The Avalanche Review, about a study of how avalanche airbags and the ability to create an airpocket. its well worth a read. I think the airbags are getting a lot better. One day avalanche educators will be saying, beacon, probe, shovel, wood/snow saw and airbag. (I have thrown “saw” in because of how some folks have been dragged into trees in avalanches and falling into tree-wells. The saw is a VERY useful tool in those situations. But, I digress.) Yes, one day the airbag pack will be considered “standard equipment” for riding in the backcountry, along with the beacon, probe and shovel.
If i was caught in an avalanche, I would be happier with an airbag so I don’t get buried. I agree with Hacksaw. I bought into an airbag day one and have considered it standard avalanche equipment since.
The comments above are a chorus of risk aversion bias in large part. When the risk is very small, as it should be (or you are a fool!), cutting it in half is not really a big deal, especially if the increased weight, cost, fiddling, and maintenance of these good luck charms subtract from your joy. Your lifetime chances of injury or death by motor vehicle mishap are far higher, if you are a prudent skier.
I think the answer here should be situational. If I’m skiing with a group, I want a beacon. If I’m skiing alone, I want an airbag.
Honestly, I’d be likely to skip skiing if somehow I didn’t have one of these items. Airbag is light enough it’s my go-to pack, and the beacon is always in its dedicated pocket of my ski pants. If I forgot my pack or pants, I really shouldn’t be out in avalanche terrain!!
I have forgotten skins a couple of times-first aid tape can make a passable skin for one lap (if you have enough and you can get it to stick). 3-4 voile straps per ski in the kick zone will also get up uphill (slowly) in a pinch.
beacon.
because it has two functions, be found and look for burried mates. the airbag ist only protecting yourself.
beacon alone ist nothing, you also need a probe and a shovel individually. and a group which carries the same equipment.
airbag is considerated as optional on top of the probe shovel beacon trilogy.
airbag is a complementary device,
not alway impeeding burial. and while we are at it, consider first help gear, as the recue goes further as you dug the mate you were searching.
pow days are making a fool of any skier,
asking the question : airbag or beacon ist a biased way of considering the security of your ski trip. think of yourself: airbag, think of your mates: beacon + shovel + probe, everything together for each skier should never be a questionnable choice.
I’ve seen airbag skiers, taking more risks because of carrying an airbag. I never saw anyone taking more risks with beacon, shovel and probe. every year, you can see the nature operate a selection for those having problems staying at the surface of an avalanche or becoming buried for a long time. it’s about minimising the risk not about the gear you have or not.
no beacon nor shovel nor probe and without first aid kit?
no avalanche terrain!
no airbag?
have you a beacon a shovel a probe and first aid kit?
Yes? shred it!
No? You can look at your mates designing the nicest curves and taking your marks for the next time on the same mountain face.
IF I’m in the BC with a skiing partner who chooses his/her airbag over a beacon, I’ll never ski with that person again. I can say from experience it is highly unlikely I’d find myself in the BC with this type of self-focused individual to begin with as I prefer to ski with those who I can trust if a challenged situation presents itself. Great question just the same!
Kind of easy. If you owned neither and we’re beginning to do enough backcountry that you were fitting out your own kit, would you purchase a beacon or airbag first? I am willing to bet a beacon, as it is mandatory equipment for any backcountry adventure. An airbag is a good / great to have, but a beacon is mandatory, not just for your safety, but the safety of those skiing with you.
Beacon for all the reasons already listed, plus if I’m buried and cannot be rescued, I don’t want emergency services spending days and taking risks looking for my body.
Hi Lou: Sorry for asking this question here…not specific to article and just did a hasty search for the latest article including avy airbags. I’m designing a personal winter shelter and presently using medium weight sheet poly that is commonly used for greenhouses in heavier weights. It’s not that robust, and kinda wondering if the tough, airtight fabric used in airbag backpacks would be close in weight per square meter….just wondering do you have tech specs on what exact fabric is used and it’s weight? Many thanks for any links or info you could share! Fabric must be waterproof/airtight…my design incorporates an option of form factor maintenance through inflation of a sealed internal airspace.
Lou, only assist if we get a guest blog out of it! ; o)
Sounds interesting, good luck Swiss
Hi Swiss, I checked up on that once but can’t remember the exact specs, I know it’s not any sort of unobtanium, just a heavy duty dacron or nylon, or something like that. I’ve been waiting for someone to make an aftermarket balloon using Dyneema, which would be a whole lot more resistant to tearing, save a few grams, and pack tighter. Weird nobody has done it, nor have the OEMs done it. We’ll have to beg Louie to start making a few (smile). Lou
Thanks Lou, I’ll look into it!
Frame: Thanks for the good luck, i’ll need it. Testing the first iteration of the survival components/package has been….somewhat unpleasant. 😉 50 km arctic outflow winds gusts at minus 15-25 degrees C…fiddling with stuff with bare fingers….humid then frosty poly film shelter collapsing on face after design tweak fails…etc…. BUT, had a modicum of success with a very basic proof of concept. A cheap/light rechargeable battery fan from amazon inflated the shelter and maintained positive pressure. An array of tealight candles placed on an avy shovel blade warmed internal air temp to 12.4 degrees C while wind gusts buffeted the shelter in night time temps of minus 18 C. A tiny bit of horizontal venting achieved with a small air hole at the foot end of the shelter. Ultimately the tea light candles proved to be inadequate for the task…I think the starting temp of ambient air temp of the wax prevented them from melting enough wax in the outer radiuses and a number of them just burned out too quick. Need a better heat source.
Oh yeah, and for reference, the medium weight poly film i’m presently experimenting with has a weight of only 300 grams for a 230cm long x 250cm wide sheet that i’ve taped together to form a 230cm long tube. Kinda comfy as is but could use more headroom for full seated positioning; more shape modding yet to come.
Swissiphic, the Alpride airbags are made from 210D Nylon Cordura HD Oxford. The entire 150l airbag weighs 340g. There are many basic PU coated 200 denier nylon fabrics to choose from that are 4oz per yard or under.
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