Snohomish County Shows Off New Beacon Locator

It was a generous Joe and I don't want to demean it BUT facing reality as to it's limitations is, I think important.
After 15 mins of burial, survivability drops to less than 10%.
Scenario.
Avy occurs in Cement Basin say. Survivors call ski patrol. Helicopter called in ( there is no heli on permanent standby at crystal). Heli dispatched and travels to scene. Heli locates avy and starts search. Victim located, digging commences, victim uncovered. There is no way this will occur in less than 15mins .
If the avy is in the ski area that can be accessed by ski patrol on snowmobiles carrying detector, maybe a chance.
I think there are more portable ones being developed and there are I think examples of successful recovery in the Alps where heli's at some major ski areas are on permanent dispatch.
The disinformation and stunning lack of accurate reporting locally boggles my mind.

And of course we have PLB's. You've all heard the story I'm sure of the Colorado dude who had an " avy beacon" given to him as a present. He used it 9 times and turned it on every time he went out. Local authorities were scratching their heads that they had received 9, SOS automated
calls over a couple of months. They eventually tracked it down and it turned out this guys tool was a PLB that he thought was a an avy beacon.

It was a generous Joe and I don't want to demean it BUT facing reality as to it's limitations is, I think important.
After 15 mins of burial, survivability drops to less than 10%.
Scenario.
Avy occurs in Cement Basin say. Survivors call ski patrol. Helicopter called in ( there is no heli on permanent standby at crystal). Heli dispatched and travels to scene. Heli locates avy and starts search. Victim located, digging commences, victim uncovered.  There is no way this will occur in less than 15mins .
If the avy is in the ski area that can be accessed by ski patrol on snowmobiles carrying detector, maybe a chance.

Maybe I give to many people the benfit of the doubt...
I guess I meant that it would be nice to find the body or bodies sooner than months later.

We all know the value of recovery, for the family. Certainly self-rescue/your party rescue is the fastest and highest likelihood of survival.

FYI Scotty, I held a RECCO receiver just a couple hours ago -- they're battery powered, about the size of a large clipboard and weigh maybe 5-10 pounds. Very "man portable" and ski areas would be wise to keep them at the tops of lifts for quick deployment just as you describe.

Of COURSE it's for body recovery, because all BC accidents are avalanche related. Certainly not a 13 year-old getting lost in the woods, or a team on Mount Hood, or a couple of boarders venturing out-of-bounds, or...

Wait a minute, maybe they'd be of some use after all.

Nothing is going to erase an accident and fix everything every time, but I'd rather the authorities have this tool in their quiver than not. And I don't think the quoted statement by the reporter was misleading at all. If I ever, God forbid, get lost in a fog/whiteout and realize my compass/map was in my other coat and am hunkered down for a very cold night, I'd be really glad to hear that whup-whup-whup overhead and know that they could see through the valley fog and "see" my location. No one is saying they should be used INSTEAD of a beacon, it's in ADDITION.

Good argument and I see your point regarding SAR recovery in bad visibility( assuming range is sufficient) but reporting was bad  IMO( I am referring to the news reprting about the Vermonters lost at Crystal) and many people, (probably not TAY'ers). are confused by what they are. This is not conjecture but based upon many people I know, snowmobilers and  infrequent resort skiers who think they are a substitute for beacons.

RECCO does a shitty job of really explaining their limitations.

At what range can a signal be picked up from a helicopter?

We all know the value of recovery, for the family.  Certainly self-rescue/your party rescue is the fastest and highest likelihood of survival.

FYI Scotty, I held a RECCO receiver just a couple hours ago -- they're battery powered, about the size of a large clipboard and weigh maybe 5-10 pounds.  Very "man portable" and ski areas would be wise to keep them at the tops of lifts for quick deployment just as you describe.

Then why don't they? How much do they cost? Even if they had one at the top of Chair 6 it would take too long to get to the South Back to be of much use for survivable recovery time. If they where that useful, why do ski areas not use them more extensively?
They are NOT useful in my opinion when taken as a whole as I believe the disadvantages outweigh the benefits and the way they are marketed confuses the uninformed public and gives them a feeling of safety that is not realistic.
BUT isn't it great that we all don't think the same way about everything. Discussion and different opinions create thought and eventually solutions, hopefully.