Beacon that can't search

I agree with all your points. I don’t think you can look at this from the POV of a BC skier though. Would you spend $$$ on a nice set of two-way radios when all you need is a baby monitor?

I was trying to go there, too, but somebody needs to make the search..

Ski patrol? Remember, you’re at the resort. Sure it’s not as fast, but it’s faster than probing or waiting until spring.

And what happens when 30 unknowing spectators show up or whiz by with these things during a patrol search of an inbound avy or other incident.

I thought about that too, but I’d guess ski patrol would close the area immediately after an incident.

Will these things come packaged with your new inbounds skis? Will ski schools offer them for sale or rent as a safety measure? Will insurance companies require ski schools to provide them? How many people will think they are safer (which they may be) and push the terrain choice? Perhaps some marginal utility, but I just see a yuk factor..

If all of this happens, I’ll be pissed that I didn’t come up with the idea, because those guys will be rich!

How about "bacon"???

i can see parents who lost their kids at the resort chasing the signal all around the mountain, only to find the kids in the arcade at the lodge...

How about "bacon"???

As in avi bacon? I usually wrap bacon around my body and make sure to have a well trained dog handy.

As easy as it is to knock this product, the company does a very good job of explaining that the product isn't for backcountry use, cannot be used to find anyone and is simply a cost-efficient safety device for those who ski in expert terrain near and within ski resort boundaries.

I cut my teeth in the BC during college - a time when I didn't have a lot of money and couldn't justify the almost $500 cost of assembling a proper BC kit. I wasn't unaware of the dangers of leaving the resort boundaries, nor was I unaware of the warning signs of instability, how to select appropriate terrain, etc. Before I'd ever crossed a ropeline, I'd "maxxed-out" my inbounds experience. I'd ridden just about everything the ski areas in the Cascades had to offer, from Pan Face at Baker to Niagaras and Left Angle at Crystal.

Strikingly, my most harrowing incidents have been inbounds. Several springs ago I triggered a shallow wet slide at Baker and was nearly swept over a large cliff onto a cat track below. On opening day of this season, I put myself deep into a tree well, my board was touching the ground when my friends dug me out. I wasn't wearing a beacon either time - something which could've dramatically reduced rescue time if my friends were unable to locate me.

While I agree with the sentiment that this device is just an expensive piece of body recovery technology, I think back to my tree well experience and shudder to speculate on how much pain my death would've brought when my body was unable to be located. Closure is an important part of the human grieving process. I was on the BOTTOM of the snowpack - I'd still be buried up there.

Had my friends not seen me go into a grove of trees and never come out on the other side, a device like what this company is offering may have made it possible for ski patrol to locate me in as little as 15-30 minutes when I didn't show-up at the chair to meet my friends. I might even have still been alive (my head was nary a foot below the surface and with a little work I was able to open a passageway just big enough for my hand before the snow hardened). People have survived extraordinarily long times in tree wells - just yesterday I was trading stories with a friend who had been upside down in a tree well for 2 hours before being rescued. I'd overheard a story of someone in one for an entire day before Patrol found him during sweep.

I think back to Paul Melby's death at Crystal last season. Would a transmit-only device have saved his life? Perhaps not, but it would've provided closure for his loved ones and the skiing community - something we waited for June for. Avalanche dogs are only effective if the area in which a skier was last seen is known, sweeping a resort's advanced terrain with beacons is much more efficient for honing-in on a missing skier.

At the cost of a day of skiing at Whistler / Squaw / Vail / etc., I think this device has its use for advanced skiers and snowboarders seeking out the most extreme terrain they can access without leaving the boundaries. Since it's an active transmitter on the 457kHz frequency, it doesn't require a special device such as a RECCO receiver than resorts only have a few of on hand at any give time. This means Patrol can empower a much larger group to search should a slide occur inbounds or a person be reported missing.

Enough of my rambling thoughts - I guess what I'm getting at is don't write it off completely, devices like these have the potential to speed rescue and recovery as more and more people get into riding in advanced, in-bounds terrain. I can already think of a few people I know who would be good customers for these...

Interesting idea, its hard for me to knock any idea to improve rescue but it seems worthless if your partner does not have the ability to search at the moment of incident. Tree wells and in bounds avalanches are the only things you need this beacon for? Given what we know about this kind of rescue you can't wait for ski patrol to arrive. Not one minute. So what's the point of this false sense of security?

If you shop around on ebay you can often get used transceivers for less that the price of the Snow-be