BCMC - Companion rescue practice 190320

Trip Report

From event https://bcmc.ca/m/events/view/1551410988

Hi team. Thanks for coming out last Wednesday. I just wanted to follow up with two specific points on transceiver search and how they relate to the 4 scenarios we ran.

Our scenarios were quite ideal. Of our task force, we had two people on the transceiver strike team. They were organized 15-20m apart and directly descended the slide path. This had good horizontal separation. Generally one searcher went for one victim respectively.

In our scenarios, if both searchers zeroed in (or believe they have zeroed in) on the same victim, what are we to do? We must mark the first signal, or otherwise make the transceiver "un-latch," then we must return to the coarse search path where we initially picked up the signal. We must ensure no part of the track or the deposit is skipped over.

Put a single, obvious, piece of your own personal gear on the snow where you left your signal search.
1. Do not use rescue equipment. Do not use something small. Do not abandon gear on the slope haphazardly; this can contaminate the scene in case avalanche dogs are required.
2. Good items to use: helmet, ski pole, ice axe, picket.
3. Bad items to use: ski, backpack, glove, tuque.
4. These items are either required for travel, required for rescue, are too small, or contain a lot of scent.
Perform your own discrete coarse search.
1. Do not directly run over to the other strike team member; you may have found a unique signal.
If you both have the same signal, ensure closer transceiver strike team member has a genuine signal and is competently zeroing-in on their victim.
Once your transceiver is close enough to do so, flag; suppress; or mark the other strike team member's victim's transceiver.
Perform micro strip or 3-circle method to ensure there is no close-proximity second burial.
Return to the piece of gear you placed in step 1. Pick it up or put it back on.
Resume signal search (or immediately start coarse search if you have the second signal).

In our scenarios, we had a large task force available. What do we do when there is only one rescuer available? This is a multi faceted topic with a lot of points touching on burial depth, triage, availability of data (e.g. Barryvox W-Link), and travel time between victims (deposit size or track length). The one point I want to reinforce (similar to above) is to ensure that no part of the slide path or deposit is skipped.

Assuming 1 rescuer and 2 victims:

Perform a zig-zag signal search down the entire slide path and deposit starting at the highest last-seen point.
When the first signal is discovered, put a single, obvious, piece of your own personal gear on the snow where you left your signal search.
Perform your coarse search, fine search, and probe grid.
Excavate the victim, if appropriate based on triage principles.
Flag, mark, suppress, or turn off the victim's transceiver.
If a second signal is found nearby (perhaps ~5m), employ a micro strip or 3-circle technique.
If there is no second signal, or the signal is far away (perhaps +10m), return to the signal search where your personal item was left behind in step 2. Pick it up or put it back on
Do not resume signal search from the excavation point of victim 1.

These solo-rescuer and multi victim principles can be scaled up to a near infinite amount. The more victims and the fewer rescuers, the more important triage principles are.

Hopefully we will never need these skills we practice.

Photos

Sub-optimal signal/coarse search, 1 rescuer