J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by Pablo Escobar

ise wrote:

Pablo Escobar wrote:I don't disagree, I'd just guess that loads of people have RECCOs in their ski boots/jackets/trousers and don't have a clue what they are there for. You are probably right in that there will be very few cases where someone will be saved using RECCO unless something happens with the technology soon. I did read that the RECCO detectors were getting smaller and smaller but remain too big to carry about.

Bear in mind this is the perfect clarity of hindsight ) RECCO has been around for 25 years or so and it's not worked out too well. I thought it sounded a great idea personally, maybe 15 years or so back I'd get new RECCO's if I got new boots and stick them on. Sometime over those years I've learnt a bit more about snow and realized that RECCO hasn't worked too well in practice.

RECCO have a thing called the White Book (http://recco.com/avalanche/safety.asp) which is well worth a look and there's a movie, their advice is pretty clear, if you're away from the piste you're going to need a transceiver. Even then, I'm not very impressed with the state of skiers with transceivers and their use, it's pretty obvious to me that people are spending too much time agonizing over which transceiver to buy and then comparing them to work out who is a couple of seconds quicker finding a buried rucksack and nothing like enough concerned about route selection and understanding the conditions under their feet.

ir12daveor wrote:

Pablo Escobar wrote:You are missing my point totally. How many skiers go away and stick 100% to groomed runs, never venturing off the piste? At a guess, none. Therefore, the RECCO reflectors will without question be better than all the expensive equipment they don't have in a worst case scenario (slide on or very close to the piste).

No, I get your point. But don't necessarily agree. RECCO recoveries live are very rare. You are thought in any Avalanche course that to have any reasonably chance of survival you need to be located and dug out in less then 15 minutes (approx 90% survival chance). The ONLY way of reliably doing this is companion rescue with the use of a transciever.

RECCO gives people a false sense of security and very likely leads to people going into dangerous situations because they think they are suitably equipped because they have RECCO on their jacket. Therefore they are increasing their risk of an event happening, without having the necessary equipment or knowledge to increase survival chances if the sh!t does hit the fan.

Agreed, maybe its useful if someone is buried on or right next to the piste and people are quick enough to phone it in. But anywhere even just a little bit away from the piste its like playing Russian roulette.