Avalanche Awareness

[Scooter]

For those of you who are hitting the slopes this winter, here's a good video on avalanche awareness. Really high quality.

Unfortunately, there's no version on YouTube, so I have to just give you the link instead of being able to embed it here:

http://vimeo.com/144545554

[Scooter]

This is bad news for some recreational snowmobilers:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-c ... -1.3426742

An avalanche near McBride, B.C., has killed five snowmobilers, say local authorities.

RCMP say they were notified of two separate GPS beacon activations in the Renshaw area east of McBride around 1:30 p.m. PT, at which point they activated the Robson Valley Search and Rescue Team.

There were at least three separate groups of snowmobilers caught in the slide, say RCMP. Six to eight people lost their snowmobiles and had to be shuttled off the mountain.

Search and rescue technicians were on the scene almost immediately, say RCMP, and a helicopter was deployed.

Donita Kuma, the regional coroner with the BC Coroners Service, said police conducted interviews with people as they came down the mountain to see if there were any other snowmobilers still missing.

"It's a very busy time of year with snowmobilers," said Kuzma, adding that there were many of them in the area for the weekend.

BC Emergency Health Services said it also transported one person to hospital in stable condition.

Human-triggered avalanche

Avalanche Canada said it had received a report of what appears to be a "very large, significant avalanche event" in the North Rockies.

"There are layers of concern in the snowpack in many parts of this region (and others) and a fairly significant weather event added rain and snow to the snowpack over the last few days," said Karl Klassen with Avalanche Canada.

"This may have produced stresses in the snowpack capable of producing large avalanches and this condition could take several days to settle and bond."

Klassen said the avalanche was human-triggered.

​

[Nate]

97% survival (claimed) for those wearing an avalanche air bag. Here's an example. The mountain sledders I know swear by them now.

Also heard good things about the training provided by the Canadian Avalanche Association in Revelstoke.

This is how quick you have to be to actually rescue someone that's been (lightly) buried. Scary shit.

[Scooter]

I've never seen these before. I didn't understand how it worked but then noticed the extensive write-up at the link you posted. Here's the start of it, for others who are curious:

Airbag Features
Black Diamond is the first company on the market to use a battery powered fan to inflate a single 200L airbag, as opposed to all other options currently available which use some form of compressed gas. The 200L is also the largest airbag currently offered. Is more better? Studies haven't proven anything yet. However, inverse segregation works by moving the largest particles to the surface, so a larger airbag has no disadvantages that we have found and it could only possibly help. Unlike compressed air canisters where there is a limit to how much air you have to work with to fill a given size airbag, Black Diamond opted for a larger airbag because they no longer have a cap on how much air they had to work with, and because they could.

Once fired the fan inflates the bag in around three seconds, which is a very similar time to all compressed gas style bags. It stays inflated for three minutes before deflating. The idea of deflating is to create a potentially bigger airbag pocket for a trapped wearer. Black Diamond claims their rechargeable lithium-ion battery will support 4+ deployments per charge, enabling the user to repack the airbag in the event of a close call or a misfire and continue to use the airbag function for the rest of the day or to return to the car with the added safety benefit of an airbag pack.

Lastly, because a computerized system is more complex than a compressed air system with a valve opening trigger, the JetForce has self checking diagnostics and briefly fires the fan at 100% in reverse to make sure your airbag pack is ready to go. Once all of this is complete the pack gives you a green light for visual confirmation. This green light will continue to flash on and off throughout the day to continue to let the wearer know that everything is operating as it is supposed too.

Once the trigger is pulled the fan runs at 100% for nine seconds, more than enough to inflate the bag even with the pressure of being caught in an avalanche. After nine seconds the fan switches cycles between running at 50% and then 100% keeping the bag inflated for the next full minute. According to Black Diamond this continuous pulse of air will keep the bag inflated even with a six inch tear. After the first minute (during minutes two and three) the fan will alternate from running to pausing at a rate to keep the airbag inflated. This is partially to meet the CE specification but also to help protect the wearer from a secondary slide. With the JetForce System you can press a button at any time to stop the process or you can pull it again to start it from the beginning. Again at three minutes the bag sucks the air out to help create an air pocket for the user. When you turn the airbag off the trigger handle has a light that flashes red and gives you three beeps to let the user know that it is off.

Refilling Options and Ease of Travel
Because the Halo 28 like the rest of the JetForce packs, uses a battery and not compressed air, refilling or (in the case of the JetForce) recharging can be done at home or at your hotel. This is obviously easier than finding a place to refill your canister or preforming a cartridge swap in the case of the nitrogen canisters. There are no restrictions on checking the battery of the JetForce packs making ease of travel one of their biggest benefits.

[Scooter]

Article about the McBride avalanche:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-c ... -1.3984351

[Scooter]

Continuing with the natural disaster theme, we have this article:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/ ... -1.4007135

I'd wonder if there was a tie-in with rich/headstrong oil patch workers and the preponderance of snowmobile fatalities, but that would be generalizing.