"The idea for beacon searching is to:
1. Methodically get close enough to acquire the transmitting signal - Primary Search or Signal Acquisition Phase.
2. Align the receiving antenna with the curving field line to get maximum signal strength, and follow the line to the source by successively moving along and realigning as you close in - Secondary Search or Homing In Phase .
3. Bracket or pinpoint the location of the buried beacon to enable the use of a probe for exact location - Fine Search or Pinpointing Phase.”

In this installment of Know Da’ Snow, we will examine how these principles of beacon searching are applied in real avalanche terrain to search for a real person. And you, dear reader, will be shown how simple it is to develop and practice your personal Small Party Avalanche Rescue skills as they apply to the case of a single buried victim. The techniques presented in this episode are the essential skills you will need in any avalanche rescue situation, so pay attention!

ASSESS THE SCENE
We begin at the Safe Spot. You were brought here by practicing safe backcountry riding habits, having found a Spot where you would be off the line and have a clear view of your partner, the pristine-about-to-be-slayed slope, and the downhill runout of any potential avalanches. Not long after that, only moments ago, you watched your ski partner drop into the line and trigger an avalanche. You could see them on the surface as the slide broke up and got moving, then as they were hauled downhill, fighting to stay on the surface, but you lost them as the slide began to slow down at the bottom of the slope and vanish into the airborne snow dust powder cloud. Now, the dust is settling, and it is up to you to locate and save the life of your currently survivally disadvantaged companion.

First, take a deep breath. Then another one. Then another one. Three seconds of getting your shit together at this point is time well spent, and could save precious minutes of you charging into the scene like the proverbial beheaded chicken and getting nothing done. This is no time to be freaking out and running on adrenaline. You need your wits more.

Next, look around. Place the spot where you last saw your friend firmly in your mind. You can reasonably expect to find them somewhere downhill and roughly in the fall line from that point, so scan that way. Call out! Do they respond? Can you see them? A glove? A boot? A ski? Remember to check these surface clues as you pass them while searching! That glove may have a hand in it, that boot is probably clamped onto a foot, and that ski may show where the avalanche was dragging them. Look up at the fracture line (or crown) of the avalanche and at the surrounding slope; is there more snow with the potential to come down and cream you while you are searching? Can you enter the avalanche area safely? Can you find a spot where you can escape to if this happens? Formulate an escape plan for yourself!

Now, turn your beacon to receive and start searching! FOCUS on your beacon and STAY CALM!

SIGNAL ACQUISITION - PRIMARY SEARCH
Having assessed the scene, you must now begin your Signal Acquisition (or Primary) Search. This requires you to systematically sweep the entire avalanche deposit with your beacon, in order to acquire the signal from the buried beacon as quickly as possible, yet leaving no area of the deposit unswept behind you as you proceed. This is illustrated in Figure 3.1.

Keep your beacon at the maximum range setting until a signal is acquired! Focus on your beacon! Follow your beacon!

Ideally, you will be able to start searching at the top of the deposit, then proceed in a straight line across it to one side. With skis or board on, you can do this most quickly in a slightly downhill gliding traverse. If you are closer to the bottom of the deposit, start there, but keep in mind that moving uphill is harder and slower. You may want to put your skins or snowshoes on in this case, but check to see if the deposit is hard enough to support your weight on boots alone, which can save precious time spent prepping uphill gear. Stop within 5-10m of the deposit edge; your beacon’s receiving range should easily extend beyond the edge of the deposit at that distance, so you know you have it covered. Now, turn around, and head back to the other side. If gliding downhill, aim your traverse back to the other side for a point 5-10m below where you started. If walking, take five big steps along the deposit’s edge, then turn and head straight back across, so that your new path crosses the deposit 5-10m away from the last one. Either way you’ll know that your beacon will have that swath well-covered. Keep searching the deposit in this fashion, paying constant attention to your beacon. When you detect tones and/or get a visual signal indicator, you should stop moving and begin Homing In or Secondary Search.

HOMING IN - SECONDARY SEARCH
Because the radio signal from a buried beacon is broadcast in circular field lines, Homing In on it is effectively locating one of these arcs (Signal Acquisition phase), then tracing the field line back to the source in a circular path, stopping to realign yourself with the arc as you go. Homing In is illustrated in Figure 3.2.

So here you are, standing somewhere in the middle of an avalanche deposit, and your beacon just started beeping and/or flashing an acquired signal. Keeping your feet firmly planted right where you are, holding your beacon with two hands out in front of you, turn your torso about 45 degrees to your right. Look at your beacon and listen. FOCUS on your beacon! Did the sound get stronger ar softer? Did more or fewer signal strength indicators light up? In the case of digital beacons, wait a few seconds. Did the indicated distance/ signal strength indicator get larger or smaller? Now turn back to face the middle (where your toes are pointing, since you have not moved your feet) - check for tones and lights again. Now turn 45 degrees to your left and check for tones and lights again.

By this point, your beacon should be giving you a clear indication of the general direction of the strongest signal. Point your beacon in that direction, and Presto! You are now aligned with a field line of the buried beacon. Don’t waste precious time trying to get it to the nearest degree; follow your beacon!

Take four big steps, stop and realign your beacon as before, and take four more big steps. You are Homing In! Keep going! Here are some important points to help you along:
1. When you stop to realign your beacon, the signal is going to keep getting louder, and more lights will flash. The human ear is much more sensitive to changes in soft tones than loud ones, so your beacon has the capability to turn the volume/range down. This is in the form of a rotary switch, or buttons on digi beacons (check your digi manual to enable to manual volume control function, which is absolutely required to learn the superior Small Party Avalanche Rescue demonstrated here on Biglines). Before doing your alignment at each stop, turn the volume/range down a notch; if you still can hear tones and see indicators, work at this setting.
2. Before taking your steps along the field line, note your current range setting. If you are getting to within 5 - 8 meters of the buried victim, only take a couple of smaller steps, or you may walk right on by (see pointer #3 below). Smaller steps as you get closer!
3. The antenna on your beacon cannot tell if a field line is coming or going, so it is possible to align yourself backwards on a field line, facing away from the source. Or, you may walk right over the buried beacon as you get close. If either of these happens, the signal will get weaker as you take more steps. Focus on your beacon! If the signal fades as you move, then you are probably going EXACTLY the wrong way. Bust a 180 and go the other way, making sure that the signal is getting stronger now. Proceed!

Soon, and much sooner with just a little parctice, you will find yourself on the lowest or second-to-lowest range setting of your beacon. You are close. A step or two will have dramatic effects on the strength of the incoming signal. If your ski partner is buried deep, you may find that, by turning your beacon to the lowest setting, you cannot detect any signal as you finish Homing In. Go back to the second lowest setting if you have to. You are ready to begin the Pinpoint or Final Search.

PINPOINT - FINAL SEARCH

The goal of the Pinpoint or Final Search, illustrated in Figure 3.3, is to bracket a small area, 2m or less on a side, under which the avalanche victim is buried. This will enable you to use your avalanche probe quickly and effectively to locate the actual location and depth of the buried victim, so they can then be dug up with your avalanche shovel.

When you find yourself at one of the lowest range settings, you are close to the victim. Get even closer! If you are holding your beacon at your waist, 1/2 meter above the snow, and your partner is buried, say 1m deep, moving your beacon to the snow surface will cut out a third of the distance separating you, and correspondingly increase the strength of the incoming signal, thus making your next task a lot easier.

For the Pinpoint Search, leave your beacon pointed in a constant direction and do not attempt to realign it to a field line. You are close to the antenna of the buried beacon, so that all of the broadcast field lines are close together. Merely turning you beacon will cause your antenna to jump from one field line to another, causing changes in signal strength that have nothing to do with getting closer to the victim.

Move the beacon one armlength along the direction you are facing. Focus on your beacon. Does the signal get stronger or fade? Now do the same in the opposite direction, back to where you started, and then one armlength behind that. Stronger or fade? It may help to mark the snow surface where the beacon fades. You want to see that between two armlengths’ distance, the signal peaks in strength at a point and fades to either side, so you have bracketed the strong signal along a line. If it does not, move your feet one armlength in the direction where the signal gets stronger and do this again. Now you should have a fore-and-aft bracket of the buried beacon’s location. Stand at the strong point along this line, and, WITHOUT TURNING YOUR BEACON, repeat the procedure in the side-to-side direction. Now you have bracketed a box on the snow surface, an armlength or two on a side, under which your friend is buried! WITHOUT TURNING YOUR BEACON, quickly move you beacon around the box to verify the location of the strongest signal, somewhere near the middle of the box. Start probing here!

PROBING
Probing is the final step in locating a buried avalanche victim, and a key link in the Small Party Avalanche Rescue Chain; an avalanche probe takes the rescuer from a localised, yet abstract, idea of where the victim is, to a positively identified location.

Start at the strong point of the Pinpoint search. Taking care to push the probe straight up and down, stick the pointy end into the snow and use two hands to work the probe down into the avalanche deposit until ground is struck, or you run out of probe to shove in. Pull the probe out hand over hand, move about 30cm to one side, probe again. Continue to systematically probe a grid around the strong point, with the probe holes 30cm apart as corners or intersect lines on the grid (Figure 3.4). Carefully feel what you hit with the probe; people feel SOFT but somewhat SPRINGY, the ground will be either quite HARD (rock), or MUSHY on the downward strike AND somewhat GRABBY as you pull out (turf or mud), trees are HARD and SPRINGY.

Once you have a sure strike, leave the probe in place and start digging!

DIGGING
With a little practice, searching and probing a single buried avalanche victim will go routinely quickly, something on the order of two to five minutes. The easy part is over. Digging through rock hard avalanche debris is difficult and exhausting, and can easily take far more precious time than searching and probing, so good technique is important.

First, look at your probe; how deep is the victim? Half a meter is a lot easier to dig than two meters. For any burial deeper than half a meter or so, start digging on the downhill side of the probe, and a little downslope. Bearing in mind the burial depth, burrow in on a downsloping angle. This makes it easier to throw snow out of the hole, and the slope will help get the excavated snow out of the way. It may help to use your shovel to cut blocks of snow, igloo style, and then chuck the blocks. When you are getting close, start yelling to the victim, because they will be very glad to hear somebody near, and it may help them hang on. Every little bit helps. When you finally uncover part of the victim, look at what part, figure out the orientation of their body, and go for the head!

PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT
So now you have read how to search and rescue a single buried avalanche victim. Congratulations, you still don’t know squat! Take the knowledge and apply it to a situation - go out and PRACTICE. Here’s how.

Get a friend, two avalanche beacons, a probe, a shovel, a small hard plastic container, a backpack, and an open area (at least 10m X 10m) with some snow on it (preferably a slope). Stomp out the area with your feet. Turn on the beacon that is NOT the one you always use, check to make sure it is transmitting with yours, put it in the plastic container (to keep it from being damaged), then into the backpack, and turn your back while your friend buries the pack. Holding your beacon, probe, and shovel, start a distance above the “top” of the “deposit”, go to receive, and proceed to search and rescue. Note your time to probe the “victim”, then your time to dig it up. Let your friend have the next turn, then you both go again.

You will find that even a couple of practice rounds, using the techniques dicussed here, will make you WAY more comfortable in a search and rescue situation. This translates directly into SAVED LIVES!

Next time on Know Da' Snow, we will look at how to search for multiple victims, but in the meantime, happy beacon hunting! -TC