He sure knows how to work his Go-Pro... but not his shovel! "Give me your beacon, its OK take your time..." She is wearing avy gear, and he has none! :25 skier comes to rest buried 2:51 Go-Pro guy arrives and the skier 3 people and 1 shovel with no handle If he had been completely buried I think he would be dead. No panic which is good, but no urgency which is very bad. I hope my partners would do better for me.
Happy New Year everyone and stay safe out there!
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from a report i found, apparently for 5 people...they only had two sets of rescue gear, and the skier that got buried had one set with him... 2 shovels, 2 probes, 2 beacons.. for 5 people.... this was some really poor judgment, and they were not familiar with the setup.
i think its mid video somewhere you can hear the buried skier tell the two guys where the handle is for the shovel.... all in all this guy was lucky
Joined: Sun Oct 18, 2009 3:18 pm Posts: 307 Location: New Castle, Colorado
I see that we have covered some of the bad points in this rescue, as pointed out by Pedro and others.
So let me focus on a seemly minor issue, which is really a major issue any time your in the Backcountry! There is an old mountaineering axiom: "Freeze you feet you can still walk out. Freeze your hands you can die.
The guy ditches his Black Diamond gloves (BD), which waste valuable time in the rescue. Always keep your gloves with you. Your now good to yourself or your group if your hands are frozen. Note all BD gloves shown in this video come with a tethers. Use the tethers"and keep your gloves with you always.
Ironically I have seen where several people put down their gloves during Avalanche Rescue practice on several Avalanche courses.
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Joined: Fri Feb 17, 2006 10:10 am Posts: 1073 Location: Denver
So much fail in this vid. How about when they try to pull him out of the hole with a ski pole? Or the part where the guy is digging himself out while the "rescuer" warms his hands after taking off his second pair of gloves?
i guess this video got so many people worked up it was taken down off the facebook page it was posted on...
it really was just a terrible job. i can understand why the woman gave up the beacon, she should have instantly pulled it out, and at least start working her way down (safely) and everyone else should have started a visual search.. but even by the time he receives the beacon, one guy points out that he can see his hand waving in the snow....
i guess this video got so many people worked up it was taken down off the facebook page it was posted on...
it really was just a terrible job. i can understand why the woman gave up the beacon, she should have instantly pulled it out, and at least start working her way down (safely) and everyone else should have started a visual search.. but even by the time he receives the beacon, one guy points out that he can see his hand waving in the snow....
There is a bunch to watch and learn from the vid, including the bad points and the good points of the rescue. After all, they did make it out alive that day.
Joined: Wed Jan 04, 2012 2:59 am Posts: 146 Location: Amsterdam
Good point. There are a few things they are doing right, but that may be just luck.
The only postive is that the gopro guy stays calm and takes charge, you have to assume he's the most experieced of the group with the beacon. But unfortunately he's so calm it lacks any urgency at all. They watch the guy in the slide and keep eyes on him. And that they skied the slope one at a time, and were waiting at a safespot?
If you are this unprepared you should really consider not going at all as it is quite dangerous. Be fair about your own skills and limits, it could safe your life or someone elses.
edit: I'm not familiar with your inbounds/backcountry system, we don't have gates in Europe so anything outside of groomed runs is avy terrain to me. So if this is inbounds and it's normal for you to go out without beacon/probe/shovel there I might be missing the point.
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Joined: Wed Oct 31, 2012 7:42 am Posts: 34 Location: Bozeman
I really have to question the appropriateness of the go-pro dude taking leadership of the group. The guy in the black jacket was calm and effective but had more clarity and more urgency about the situation. If anything I think this displays the human issue of the expert halo. While the "expert" was messing with gear another member of the group had assessed the situation and come to a much quicker/more effective solution. He also didn't toss his gloves to the side, and wasn't suggesting ideas that weren't working. Even when mr go-pros hands started to freeze and not function correctly he still kept black jacket out of the rescue site further asserting is undeserved dominance in the situation. Anyone can shovel, and it's totally appropriate to rotate the task to keep everyone functioning at a high level. This is far from the worse fail in the vid, just something else to think about.
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