Avalanche rescue

The first 20 minutes are critical when rescuing someone buried in an avalanche. Chances of survival are still around 85% – afterwards these chances decrease drastically. On the other hand, the search for and rescue of a single avalanche victim takes 20 minutes on average. With this in mind, it is clear how precious time is and how invaluable a good training with his avalanche rescue gear can be.

Avalanche rescue is a race against time! Companion rescue, therefore, provides the greatest chances of survival for a buried subject. Companion rescue means that buried subjects are located and excavated by members of their party immediately after the avalanche slide.

If an avalanche occurs

As a Victim:

• Escape to the side
• Discard skis, snowboards, and poles (anchor effect)
• Try to stay on top
• Close your mouth; place your hands in front of your face (clear airway when the avalanche stops)

As a Witness:

• Memorize the last seen point as well as the direction of the avalanche
• Fix the primary search strip

Emergency plan

The emergency plan lists the basic actions to be taken for a successful rescue operation.

1. Obtain an overview
2. I am searching with a transceiver: SEARCH
   I am not searching: enable Rescue-SEND
3. At least one rescuer carries out an immediate search using his or her eyes, ears and a transceiver
4. Transceiver search complete: switch all transceivers to SEND
5. Mountains – First aid – Raising the alarm

Transceiver Search

Standard procedure for newer transceivers with direction arrow:

1. Primary search
2. Coarse Search
3. Pinpointing
4. First Aid
5. Notification