I know nothing about avalanche beacons, their technology, how far their signals propogate, etc. but a thought just came to mind and I don't think it's ever been asked. Could an avalanche beacon be useful in situations other than when someone is buried in an avalanche? Say you step on a loose rock on a mountain trail in the summer and take a tumble down the slope into dense brush and are injured.

If you were diligent and left info with someone about your route, overdue time, and that you were carrying an avalanche beacon, could searchers who were retracing your steps also be looking for your beacon signal? Is that something practical? Chances are, you'd be the only person in the area transmitting, so that's a good thing. Are aircraft equipped to pick up that frequency? (The James Kim family situation came to mind just now.)

I don't think I've ever heard of an avalanche beacon being deliberately used this way, so that's why I ask. Thoughts?

Arney,

Avalanche transmitters are VERY low power and have a transmitting range of a few tens of feet. Not nearly enough to find someone unless you are about to step on them (which is basically what you do in avalanche rescue). Better than nothing (if everyone in the rescue team has a unit) but unlikely to help. Few except Ski Patrol, Avalanche rescue teams and winter back country types have one. Most rescue teams would not have them or would not bring them in the summer.

Respectfully,

Jerry

Ah, that explains a lot. Thanks for that bit of info Jerry.

Actually, I got sidetracked on asking about the official SAR angle in my first post. I didn't originally intend my question to sound like could these be used as a replacement for something like a PLB but I guess that's where my stream of thought took me.

I was originally thinking of using avalanche beacons in a form of "buddy SAR" before calling out the pros. Say you have a bunch of hiking buddies and you already all have avalanche beacons from winter trips together. Then, in the summer, you take a trip together and you take what you think is a quick lone hike away from the cabin or base camp and get lost or injured.

However, sounds like a whistle might be more useful, range-wise, in this circumstance. Or those bubble pack radios you can buy at any big box store.

Ditto what Jerry said. Avy beacons would be a very poor choice for the situation described. For some actual test results of the range of some popular beacons see http://beaconreviews.com/transceivers/RangeTestResults.asp

This shows most have a maximum range of about 30-80 meters, under ideal circumstances. The digital beacons, which are most populur now becasue they indicate both direction and distance, are mostly less than 50 meters. For about the same price of an avalanche beacon, one could buy a proper PLB. A SPOT could be obtained for less.

SPOT is the most expensive of all options. The annual membership overshadows in entry cost. Get a quality PLB. And they always work!

Agree -- with the latest ACR PLB retailing at a lower price than previous ACR PLB's, $264.95 there is little reason to rely on anything other than a dedicated unit when your life hangs on performance.

For "buddy SAR" some of the basics (whistles, signal mirrors) are going to work better than an avvy beacon. Of course whistles and mirrors require that you be conscious.

The one advantage of an avvy beacon is that you don't have to be conscious. Relatively few people have avvy beacons, but if you and a buddy already both have them, then there's no overriding reason not to carry them.

I just think the circumstances where they'd be useful in non-snow conditions would be so limited that it wouldn't be worth carrying them. You'd basically have to see your buddy fall but then not be able to see where he landed (dense brush or something). You basically have to have a pretty good idea where your buddy is but for some reason not be able to see him in order for an avvy beacon to be useful. Great in winter when you just saw him get buried in snow and saw about where he is, but I'm having a hard time imagining an equivalent scenario in the summer. Maybe a rockfall/landslide, but the chances of surviving such an event (if it's big enough to completely bury him) are slim, and, unlike snow, any sizeable rockfall is going to be hard to dig someone out from.

HJ

Don't get too many illutions about avalanches... the white fluffy stuff has little to do with what you find after an avalanche: Snow that is disturbed settles and becomes rock hard. Digging someone out from an avalanche is really hard work. Not as hard as digging someone out from a rockfall, but still plenty hard.

Good point. That's actually why I carry a metal snow shovel even though there are lighter weight lexan ones available. Lexan just doesn't hold up if the snow is as hard as a rock. And in an avalanche, you may well have tree trunks, rocks, etc mixed into the debris.

HJ

Not my area of experience, but couldn't you each carry a Garmin "Chirp" programmed to each others GPS unit? only $23.00.

https://buy.garmin.com/shop/shop.do?pID=74811&ra=true

This would give you the advantage of having a GPS unit plus a way to locate someone who is nearby but out of sight.

The reliable range of the Chirp is said to be '30-'40, the battery lasts a year, and I'm thinking it is about the same power as an av beacon.

No affiliation

Interesting! Never heard of it before.

Seems like it would be of limited utility. You've only got 10m range under ideal conditions. If conditions are ideal, you probably don't need a Chirp.


Still, this may be the shape of things to come. Perhaps units with more range will become available. Parents could slip one in a child's pocket. Now, that would be nice at the County Fair!

HJ

Maybe a new use for a Recco reflector too, if range were tweeked.

http://www.mountaingear.com/pages/produc...item/640258/N/0

An Avalanche Beacon is short ranged and meant to quickly help your companions find out the spot where you are buried under the snow after being caught in an Avalanche. The Beacons are turned on before a ski or snowmobile trip and set on Send. After one or more of your companions are caught and swept down the mountain by the Avalanche the survivors set their Beacons on Receive and begin the search from the position anyone saw you in the snow cloud.

With less than 20 minutes to complete the search, it is fast, intense, and short ranged work. No one is going to clear much rock hard Avalanche Debris. Searchers must literally get right on top of the victim to find them.

If it was rock, etc. It my not work and if you were not buried you could probably see the victim before the beacon did anything. They don't work at any really effective range for any other type of search. Realistic maximums are between 30m to 50m for Avalanche Beacons.

These type of Beacons are specialized pieces of gear made for backcountry travel where there is a chance of an Ice or Snow Avalanches.

That said, the biggest Snow Avalanche I ever set off was hiking in the Canadian Rockies in May. Fortunately for me and the group, it was a wet snow Avalanche and we were traveling well apart and above the slide area.