Avalanche emergency equipment recommendation
( Standard-Lawine Notfallausrüstung Empfehlungen  Lavine nødudstyrets anbefaling )
Standard Avalanche emergency equipment recommendations
of the Alpine Club
A) Standard emergency equipment (always and every time):
LVS, not older than 10 years, preferably 3-antenna devices, shovel, preferably made of hardened aluminium; probe, at least 240 cm long.
Additional: First-aid equipment, bivouac sack, mobile phone (number of units depending on group size).
B) Recommended additional emergency equipment (in order of their importance and their effectiveness):
1. Airbag Systems
Balloon systems, which itself will need to generate an additional volume of 150 l or 170 and thereby promote flowing effect in avalanches.
Rescue Principle: The dept of burial is reduce or prevented, "who stays up, survived - mostly." Two manufacturers currently: ABS (according SLF database 120 cases documented in Europe, of which 114 people (95%) survived), SnowPulse (available since spring 2008, yet no documented injuries).
2. Avalung
allows you to breathe through a filter and separates the breath intake and outtake to breathe under the snow.
Rescue Principle: Survival in the avalanche is extended. Five documented successful rescues.
3. Avalanche Ball
Further development of the former "avalanche cord. A folded ball fitted with a clamping spring with a cord attach to the body. When triggered the ball jumps from the bag and will remain visible at the surface.
Rescue principle: location system - like LVS - however, optical, not electronic. Two success stories since 1997 (according to manufacturer's homepage).
4. Recco
In clothing (helmet, shoes, jacket) integrated reflector allows for the tracking (radar principle) of victims who do not carry LVS. Searching is only by organized rescue team with Recco detector possible.
| Reference
http://www.oeav.at/ | | To top of page |
Critical new snow depth
( Kritische Neuschneemenge Kritisk nye sne mængde )
The new snow is a load for the old snow cover and hence increases the avalanche danger.
The rule of thumb for the critical new snow depth is:
10 to 20 cm with unfavourable situations
20 to 30 cm with intermediate situations
30 to 50 cm with favourable situations
Favourable: low to moderate wind speeds, air temperature close to 0°C, strongly irregular old snow surface, frequently skied slopes.
Unfavourable: high rate of precipitation, strong winds (> 50 km/h, roaring wind), low temperature (below –5 to –10°C ), smooth old snow surface (surface hoar, melt-freeze crust or ice, , very old snow surface,), rarely skied slopes.
| Reference
http://www.slf.ch | | To top of page |