Beacons can save lives during avalanches

The snow is shoving you down the mountain fast, bouncing you off trees and boulders, scraping you along the ground. You're totally tossed and tumbled.

Then everything stops and the world becomes still and silent, dark and frozen, and you cannot move. Nobody knows where you are. You're buried alive under tons of dense snow. You're probably going to die.

Your only chance is for somebody to find you and dig you out. If they get it done in 30 minutes, you have a 50-50 chance. The odds drop fast every minute after that.

If you're smart, you're wearing an avalanche beacon on your chest and it is sending out tiny beeps.

If you're lucky, somebody on top of the avalanche has a beacon, too, and knows how to work the thing. And they have a shovel.

The beacon is no guarantee of survival, especially if the avalanche is big, but at least it gives you a chance. Beacons have saved people from avalanches this winter. In Montana recently, they saved snowmobiler Kemp O'Neill. But the beacons alone didn't save him. One of the searchers had practiced beforehand, making sure he knew how to operate the device.

That's something too many beacon owners don't do, avalanche and rescue experts say.

David Lanzendorf located his friend O'Neill. Just the day before, he had practiced with the machine. His daughters had fun hiding it around the house and watching him search. "At least it got me somewhat familiar with it," he said.

Lanzendorf said he was glad he practiced but wished he had done so in a snow field. "I found him, but it was a fluke," he said. "I didn't understand the equipment well enough."

The $200 devices are becoming more popular with backcountry snowmobilers and skiers. They come with good directions, but you have to practice if you hope to save a life. When someone is suffocating under the snow, you don't have time to read the directions.

"It doesn't do any good to spend the money and just hang it around your neck," said Ron Johnson, of the Gallatin National Forest avalanche center in Montana. "You should be able to locate the other beacon in 10 minutes. If you can't do that, you haven't practiced enough."

The devices are designed to be strapped to the chest. Set them on transmit when skiing or snowmobiling in avalanche country. When using them to search, set the dial on receive. A series of beeps will become louder as you approach your target.

Using one properly requires listening carefully, moving quickly and thinking clearly, often in miserable weather at a time when stress and tension are incredible -- a friend is dying.

At a practice session recently, the a search and rescue team showed how difficult it can be.

Three transceivers had been buried on the side of a small hill under an inch of snow. Half a dozen people, some of them new volunteers who had never held one of the devices before, some with a little experience, spread out and started searching.

Working in darkness but without the tension of a real-life rescue situation, it still took 30 minutes for the team to locate the first transceiver under that scant snow cover.

"It's not simple," said local search and rescue president Tom Murphy. And that's why his crew was practicing. "You can't just give somebody a 15-minute class."

By the time a search crew can assemble and arrive at an avalanche, they are usually looking for a body. If a person is to be uncovered alive, their companions must know how to use the devices. Being well trained doesn't help if you are the one buried.

"You want to pick partners who are good with their beacons," Johnson said. "Most people could probably locate a (buried) partner, but not in time."

Uncover a victim within 15 minutes and there's a 92 percent chance of survival, he said. That means you have to understand your equipment and start searching immediately. Wasted minutes can be lethal.