Recco - Anyone got any 1st hand experience?

Ise,
Sorry, but after contacting the inventor of Recco, Magnus Granhed I am sure the following do not agree with your opinion of the quality of the Recco;
Jeff Grella - Vans
Matt Sharkey - Sessions
Tom Routh - Snow sport
Dave Rosenberg - Quicksilver
Letitia Ferrier - North Face
Bruno Jelk - Rescue Zermatt Patrol

Pavel

pavelski wrote:Ise,
Sorry, but after contacting the inventor of Recco, Magnus Granhed I am sure the following do not agree with your opinion of the quality of the Recco;
Jeff Grella - Vans
Matt Sharkey - Sessions
Tom Routh - Snow sport
Dave Rosenberg - Quicksilver
Letitia Ferrier - North Face
Bruno Jelk - Rescue Zermatt Patrol

Pavel

I doubt that very, very much, no rescue professional will have told you that they're an effective device for an off-piste skier or that anything other than carrying transceiver, shovel and probe is recommended or that anyone relying on solely using a Recco is anything other extremely foolish. That's my opinion, it's the consensus opinion held by everyone with any knowledge on the matter and anyone that says different is dangerously wrong.

If you're refuting that then say so, then people will be able to judge what you're saying. And if you are then I suggest you produce some figures for live recoveries.

pavelski wrote:I also am a "neophyte" in the technical aspects of this unit.

I'm sorry, but this is actually important, it's life or death in fact and there's no room for guesswork no matter how well intentioned. There's no significant number of recorded live recoveries using Reccos sadly and that's because of the simple maths of the situation, 92% of people will survive burial if recovered in 15 minutes and Recco can't be deployed that quick. Recco just can't beat those numbers.

I've read a couple of times that recco is really only meant effective for inbounds use. Inbound avalanches are becomming more common in the US and are claiming lives. Does that make more sense for this tool, where Ski Patrol can be on the scene in minutes and people were not expecting to need transcievers ?

Trencher

Trencher wrote:I've read a couple of times that recco is really only meant effective for inbounds use. Inbound avalanches are becomming more common in the US and are claiming lives. Does that make more sense for this tool, where Ski Patrol can be on the scene in minutes and people were not expecting to need transcievers ?

Trencher

eekk ! :D I was kind of hoping someone wouldn't mention that :D

What does inbound mean? different things in the US and here in Europe for sure. If all gear suppliers stuck Reccos in the gear in the US and US skiers continue not to carry equipment when skiing those inbound areas and there's a rise in inbound avalanches then maybe we start to see some increase favourable outcomes.

But is that true? Are there more inbound avalanches in the US than previously? I wasn't aware of it in statistical terms, I've seen a couple of incident reports, like this one :

http://www.telemarktips.com/FSneverSame.html

The writer doesn't mention Recco and I'm not sure I can see what the response time of the local piste services was, but the clock's ticking and any response over a couple of min's isn't much good.

For Europe it's pretty simple, anyone that ventures off-piste relying on Recco's would be foolhardy in the extreme.

Another corner case would be heli operations, I've read some are equipped and can obviously be on scene pretty quick for their clients.

"Inbounds" in the states means within the area controlled by the ski resort. In that area avalanche prone slopes are closed until avalanche control work has been carried out by the ski patrol and the area assesed to be safe. In the incident linked below the patrol had set off more than 170lbs of explosives that morning befor opening that area.

http://www.deseretmorningnews.com/article/1,5143,695238731,00.html

The dead man had received head injuries and the boy later recovered.

Trencher

Pavel, I have some Recco reflectors spread about my clothing. In no way will they enable me to help find my friends in the event of an avalanche.
If the unthinkable happens, I want to be able to search for my friends, so we all wear Transceivers, and carry Avalanche Probes and Shovels.

Recco is passive, only a resort is equipped to do searching for buried skiers. For most victims, it will be too late. If we all use Recco, I could look forward to standing and wondering where I should start digging. Not good.

Fortunately i haven't had first hand use of one and never want to either.

However earlier today i saw a sign at the top station of the Gem Lake chair in Big White saying "RECCO TRANSCIEVER STORED HERE" I've never seen a sign like that anywhere. I would assume they had more than one though, because the most avalanche prone area is the Cliff (which actually had an avalanche today trapping 7 people, 2 still missing i believe :( ). Gem Lake is the opposite side of the ski area to the Cliff so i'm sure they have at least another one at the top of the Cliff chair.

I'd heard that some rescue helicopters had them in, but they only work at a max of 50m above the snow. So im bad weather conditions thats pretty much impossible!!

Anyone who relies on those in the back-country is stupid. As someone said (forgot who now), they have a better record of finding a dead body rather than a live one.

bennyboy wrote:
I'd heard that some rescue helicopters had them in, but they only work at a max of 50m above the snow. So im bad weather conditions thats pretty much impossible!!

Rather more than 50m I think, that would be fairly impractical from a helicopter of course. It's 200m in the air and 30m through snow which is more than enough.

I've just watched the RECCO "White Book" DVD, which is a avalanche awareness resource, and they make it pretty plain that you can't rely on RECCO's.