I don't know. I just saw the video on the news and thought it as interesting. Avalanche surfing might become a new sport...until people start hitting trees.
Registered: 10/30/03
Posts: 4963
Loc: Marina del Rey,CA
The airbag is made by BCA (Backcountry Access). They have this airbag mounted in different sized backpacks. The BCA website has all the info and videos showing how to set it up and deploy it. They are not cheap and I'm not sure how well they would work in a really big slide. BCA also makes beacons and other avy gear.
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Don't get me started, you know how I get.
I posted something in winter travel about a backcountry snowboarder not surviving an avalanche on 2/13/12. Preliminary reports have him expiring not from asphyxiation, but blunt trauma, it should be noted.
Thats a larger sack and they are trying to say it will "float" in an avolanche - well maybe - ok, but still being swept over a cliff is kinda terminal and blunt trama is the general killer more so than suffocation. I mean being smashed by ice isn't that different than being hit by a rockslide.
Except for the snow experts and people who groom slopes at ski areas, people do not take seriously the threat of avolanche slopes. I think being so cavalier as to wear one of those vests and then skiing across an avolanche prone slope believing that this baloon will save you from your folly is like speeding in your BMW because it has 7 airbags.
Jim
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These are my own opinions based on wisdom earned through many wrong decisions. Your mileage may vary.
Registered: 10/30/03
Posts: 4963
Loc: Marina del Rey,CA
These people were all experts. One of the victims was the marketing director at the ski resort, the others were guides or pros, including the woman with the airbag. It is a bit of a mystery why they thought the slope was not risky. Someone like me wouldn't know better, then again, I'm a bunny hill skier so I wouldn't be there in the first place.
Different sport, but over the weekend, a skydiver with 8000 jumps who had trained Navy Seals was killed at Perris (east of LA) when he was trying a close to the ground manoeuver (skimming across a pond) and hit the water. Shows that even experts get killed regardless of skill level and experience.
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Don't get me started, you know how I get.
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