Alaska ski guide buried in avy despite airbag

Amar, do you know of any similar statistics of people buried vs. non buried with no airbag?  I'd imagine less than half of those caught in an avalanche get fully buried anyways, it'd be interesting to calculate the actual decrease in chance of being buried with an airbag.

Eli3, read Amar's post again more carefully

Thirteen of the 41 people without ABS were killed during the avalanche incident (approximately 32%).

vs

Out of these 180 cases involving fully inflated airbags, 177 people survived the avalanche (approximately 98%) incident and 3 died

Some further interesting statistic for you regarding airbags( from personal experience).

1. Cost of airbag pack $800 ( used)
2. Number of times I have been in uncontrolled avalanche terrain this season= 62.
3. Number of times I have worn it this season= 2 times/62=3.2258%
4. Number of times I have worn it to Crystal while skiing uncontrolled sidecountry=1/62=1.6129%
5. Number of times I have considered taking it and decided it was too heavy=60/62=96.774%
6. Number of times my wife has asked" why did you buy that thing'= 62/62=100%
7. Number of times my buddies have threatened to pull the cord and inflate bag while I have been wearing it=2/2=100%

7. Number of times my buddies have threatened to pull the cord and inflate bag while I have been wearing it=2/2=100%

Then you could be TAY's official inflated airbag.

That was too hard to resist. Go ahead and nail me, I probably deserve it.

I hear you, Scotsman - not cheap, and heavy.

Will report on use when I get mine.

Randy - the numbers for the 40 people caught don't really jive with other well known statistics - i.e. the staying alive in avalanche terrain book says ~28% of those completely buried die, where as this study says 65% (assuming all those who died were completely buried, which may not be true but there is no info in the paper) or another paper on the bca website which says 28% of people caught in avalanches die.

Its just bothersome as it seems as though its trying to be a scientific paper, they don't do any compelling analysis with their data - as the authors of both papers referenced here have more than enough data to show if their findings are statistically significant or not. With sample sizes this small, this is very, very important.

As it turns out, the data, if assumed to be representative, the case for airbags is compelling even with the tiny non-airbag sample size, i did a quick analysis (there are probably mistakes, haven't done this in a while).

spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0ApQmMKX...thkey=CJj5u-8B#gid=0

Great video...