Alpental Beacon Park

I've heard of the Alpental Beacon Park before, but didn't know much about it.  When Silaswild and I decided to skip our planned Kendall trip yesterday due to a combination of poor snowpack and deteriorating weather, we spent a few hours skiing at Alpental instead.  When the driving snow and growing crowds got too large, we wandered over to the beacon park.  After playing in the park, we realized a post on TAY reminding folks of this resource was in order.

To get to the park, cross the street from the main parking lot (the one with the bridge to the lodge).  Just to your right, about 25 feet up the hill, you'll see what looks like a telephone pole with no wires.  On that pole is a control box that allows you to start scenarios.  The first time you use it it will need a few minutes to warm up; after that, it will start immediately by telling you how many victims are buried and starting a timer.   

You need a beacon, but probes are provided.  We used their probes, but they are fairly large and unwieldy so you may want your own.  Once you strike a victim with a probe, a horn sounds and a light flashes at the control station.  There is no need to dig (please don't).  Once all victims are located, the control station will tell you how long it took to locate each victim.

The control box offers easy, medium, and expert scenarios, although expert wasn't working for us.  I strongly recommend everyone venturing into the backcountry practice at this park at least once or twice a year; it's much better practice than looking for beacons in the backyard, and I wish I'd been here a lot sooner.

Oh, and my old analog Pieps still beat out the DTS Tracker.    I feel validated that analog beacons require more skill and practice, but generally have longer range and more accurate directions, and especially out-perform in multiple-burial scenarios.

Thanks for the info, those parks are truly a great resource, I really want to make it over to one of them to hone the skills. I have a Ortovox M2, so I'm glad that the analog beacons were rightly defended ; ) Happy New Years.

I'm not aware of any other beacon parks, although I'm sure there are some. Maybe we should make a list; that would make a good resource.

Stevens pass is supposed to have one called BCA beacon basin. I haven't checked it out yet. Has anyone else?

www.stevenspass.com/Stevens/the-mountain/z-beacon-basin.aspx

Glad to hear you are enjoying the beacon park.  I will see why the expert mode did not work.

We (Alpental Patrol/Pettigrew Foundation) are teaching a companion rescue class at that site every Saturday in January.  Kevin Pettigrew made a post recently about the classes, see: www.thedavidpettigrewmemorialfoundation.com  for details.

Although the park is open 24/7, I will have the site reserved for a couple of hours during the class- probably 9AM-11AM on Saturdays, January 2, 9, 16, 23, 30.  Thanks for your understanding and I look forward to seeing some of you there.

Stimbuck

I'm not aware of any other beacon parks, although I'm sure there are some.  Maybe we should make a list; that would make a good resource.

There's one up at Crystal by the Campbell Basin lodge, also one at the Mountaneers property up at Snoqualmie. I'm glad to see the Alpy one running, a couple of weeks ago it wasn't set up. BCA's website has a full listing.

www.backcountryaccess.com/english/education/trainingpark.php

Last year we used the one at Crystal and were completely humiliated by a patroller who did a 3 or 4 burial scenario in something like 4 minutes.