Companion rescue: the minutes that decide it

The uncomfortable arithmetic of avalanche burial is this: survival chances are high in the first several minutes and fall steeply after that. Organised rescue — a helicopter, a dog team, a professional patrol — cannot arrive inside that window in most backcountry terrain.

The people who will dig you out are the people you skied with. That is the entire system, and it only works if everyone in the group can operate it under stress.

The moment it happens

Watch the victim. Do not look away. Fix a point where you last saw them — that last-seen point defines the search area and it is astonishingly easy to lose in a slope full of debris that all looks identical.

Then check for further hazard. Is more snow going to come down? Is the group standing in a second start zone? If the answer is yes, you cannot help anyone by joining the burial. Move to a safe position first, quickly.

Then switch every transceiver in the group to search, and say it out loud. A transmitting device in the searching group's pockets interferes with the search and it happens in real incidents constantly.

Signal search

Move across the slope below the last-seen point in a broad sweep, covering the debris field. Modern digital transceivers have a range of a few tens of metres, so sweep width should be well inside that. Move fast — this is the phase where speed costs nothing in accuracy.

If there is only one searcher and a wide field, move quickly in a zigzag down the fall line from the last-seen point. Most burials are in or below that line.

Coarse search

Once you have a signal, follow the direction arrow and the distance number. Move steadily, not frantically. The device is showing you a curved field line, not a straight line to the victim, and it will bend as you go — that is normal, follow it.

Slow down as the number drops below about ten. Rushing here means overshooting and having to re-acquire.

Fine search

Below about three metres, get the transceiver down at the snow surface and stop turning it. Move it slowly in a straight line until the number rises, then back to the low point. Then do the same at right angles. You are bracketing a minimum in two axes.

This phase rewards patience. It is where practised people gain the most time over unpractised ones, because the unpractised wave the device around, which produces unstable readings and wastes a minute.

Probe

Assemble the probe fast — it should be one motion you can do with gloves on and cold hands, which is exactly why you practise it. Probe in a tight spiral outward from the low point, perpendicular to the snow surface, spacing the strikes close together.

A body feels different from ground: softer, with a slight give. When you hit it, leave the probe in place. Do not pull it out to check. It is now the marker that tells the shovellers exactly where and how deep to dig.

Shovel — and this is where most time is lost

Digging is the longest part of the rescue by a wide margin, and digging badly can double it. Do not dig straight down at the probe.

Step downhill from the probe by roughly one and a half times the burial depth, and dig in from the side, making a platform and moving snow downhill and out rather than lifting it. You are cutting a ramp toward the victim, not a well.

Avalanche debris sets like concrete and it is astonishingly heavy. With more than one digger, work in a V downhill of the strike, rotate the lead person every couple of minutes because the front position is exhausting, and clear the snow behind rather than piling it where the next person must move it again.

As you approach, dig toward where the airway will be. Get the head and chest clear first, clear the mouth, and check for breathing.

Practise until it is boring

Bury a pack with a transceiver in it. Time yourself from signal to probe strike. Do it repeatedly, at the start of every season, and do it wearing what you actually ski in, with gloves on, because everything is harder with gloves.

A group that has never practised together will typically take several times longer than one that has. That difference is the entire margin between the two possible outcomes, and it is free to acquire.

Carry all three items — transceiver, probe, shovel — every single time. A transceiver without a probe and shovel locates a body. It does not rescue anyone.