Avalanche rescue

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 barry donovan 01 Jan 2019

Saw this, goes well with the crevasse rescue.  Both positive outcomes, well equipped and switched on quick.

youtube.com/watch?v=YW5AcukbD3k&

 TeeBee 04 Jan 2019
In reply to barry donovan:

Good spot. It's scary how (apparently) far and deep he ended up in a seemingly fairly gentle avalanche. And it makes a good case for locator beacons.

OP barry donovan 04 Jan 2019
In reply to TeeBee:

Yea - shallow slope slowish and not very deep - just rolls over him and he’s not very deep when they find him but would not have survived it very long - already going blue.  So lucky he could breath. The ski buddy does a hasty zig zag from high up and does a great job in four minutes - I’m no skier so imagine doing it on foot  and without transceivers - just hardly any chance of finding someone ?  

Note to self remember ‘aidez nous ‘. And what ‘dial 112’ is in french . 

 

 leon 1 04 Jan 2019
In reply to barry donovan: yes his mate appeared to do a great job locating him. The thing that surprised me was that there only seemed to be one shovel between all the rescuers.  Bloody scary how easily that happened  given how benign that terrain looked

Post edited at 14:13
OP barry donovan 04 Jan 2019
In reply to leon 1:

He swears at the shovel - fiddly and slow to fit the handle - ‘snow claw ‘ is a good alternative - they dig really fast like animals do without the dig and throw of a handle - and are so light and small that you don’t get put off carrying then.  Don’t know about getting them in the uk though.?  Snow claw have a film on their website.  

 Welsh Kate 04 Jan 2019
In reply to barry donovan:

I have a snow claw which I bought in the UK, but it was some time ago and I can't remember where I got it from now and I'm fairly they stopped importing them not long after I got mine).

But they're great pieces of kit, and not just for shovelling snow, as you say like a digging animal; I've used mine to help get the car out when it's been snowbound, both for digging out and shovelling away compressed snow, but for providing some traction under the wheel too (which is one of its advertised uses!)

 Si Withington 04 Jan 2019

If you’ve ever dug in a proper avalanche pack you’ll know that the lack of leverage of something like the Snow Claw is quickly gong to be an issue. Great in soft snow maybe but snow solidifies like concrete in seconds, even in a powder avalanche. No replacement for a decent shovel, but just my opinion. 

OP barry donovan 05 Jan 2019
In reply to Si Withington:

Love the inference . . .  ‘if you ever ‘. .  so UKC !  

Yup tick the the box to all the above and have dug in avalanche debris (which solidifies in seconds as we all know) with one.  OK gym for 40 years also pays off.  Thanks for the opinion 

8
 Si Withington 05 Jan 2019
In reply to barry donovan:

Nice one. Hopefully I'll get a chance to have a bash with one sometime as weight/space saving would be awesome. 


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