Ep 15: Avalanche Rescue Training Scenario| Salomon How To

[@mikefawcett332]

Great stuff, very realistic. You could hear and feel the stress in Alexi and Stan’s voices. Tremendous amount of work for a larger group. Can’t imagine how difficult this would be for 1-2 rescuers with even a single burial. Great point on the debrief and having someone act as an observer for the training sessions. Comm’s are super important. Leah’s an excavating machine!! Super efficient. Thanks for the insights. Hope you all have an epic and safe winter.

[@gabrielharton2743]

Probably the nicest video I've seen on the subject! I will use it in my AST1 courses. I guess the video is more about sensitization but in my opinion something worth mentioning is keeping the beacon leveled when doing fine search. The results won't be accurate if the beacon is moved up and down like Alexis has done getting his beacon in holes.

[@alanbrooke144]

Keeping your kit with you is a top tip. They also need some instruction in efficient shovelling, doing it right really speeds things up and saves energy.

[@Ecoroof1986]

That's scary as fook. My heart rate was up just sat on sofa with a cup of tea. Brilliant video

[@PaulBeiser]

Excellent!! One of the best and most realistic practices I have seen, thank you.

[@SolaceEasy]

The team was great at recovering from their minor errors. For example, when they didn't have a probe, they just started digging.

[@kajzackrisson3569]

Awesome scenario, Chris nows whats up, I had the pleasure of training some skiers our freeridecamp, and like you say, so good to train regurlary, and its actually fun! Good show, cant wait for next mountain collective

[@OnceUponaSaga]

I agree with many of the comments: a really well produced and realistic exercise of high value. Well done 👍 #SagaBingeWatchingSalomonTV

[@OutOfCollective]

These are all so great. Appreciate y'all.

[@SalomonTV]

Glad you like them!

[@outthereindustries7413]

Good scenario guys, great watch, a real think piece. This is where i find/feel having a variation of transceivers is a good thing, I still run my old Orthovox M2 and always have a ear piece where a feel i can find signals fast with my personal onboard audio locator, ear & brain. Always practice, perfect practice, play games with practice, compete with each other in the practice. Be safe snow people.

[@BCfromBC]

Awesome job!!

[@maximopidal6943]

Error spoted: Dont take your gloves off. Better get your hads swetting, than freezing and beaing useless speccialy for shoveling. You might loose some significant time putting them on or finding them.

[@kyli3__]

Wow awesome 👌

[@Benzknees]

Good practices but shows the precious time it takes. And in reality avalanche debris is usually a lot steeper, too uneven to ski down & potentially unstable enough to not risk all your searchers on. And often more hard packed & difficult to probe.

[@stephenclark15]

It’s hard to perform in high pressure and confusion but it’s a good thing we practice. I sure wouldn’t want to be buried for 11 minutes.

[@OutForIt]

Excellent indeed, great scenario! And even better that not everything was perfect, as it made the video more informative. A couple of points: 1) At the beginning of the rescue, Leah designates Mike to call 911. Victims have to be rescued within 10-15 min, the earlier the better. Wouldn't it be better to have Mike contribute to the rescue, rather than spend the first couple of minutes on the call? Does it really make a difference to have the call 10 min later? 2) Is there an optimal number for the rescue team members, depending on the number of burials? Is it possible that a large rescue crew (let's say 8 people) will not be as efficient as a small group (let's say 4 people) for a single burial due to communication issues? Looking forward to the first aid video! Many thanks!

[@matthiasvolk6006]

I thing the 911 Call is a bit Situation dependent. On easy Scenarios, where you don’t expect other (trauma) injuries, maybe dig first. But in case the Victim needs intensive care, like CPR later on, then getting professional help, or a Medevac 10mins earlier makes a big difference. On a big scenario, like this, I would always call for additional help first. Usually most if the time on an avalanche rescue is spent on the shoveling stage. Whereas I feel like in the beginning a lot of people on the Tranceivers don’t add a lot of help. So calling in the beginning makes sense. On large groups you often use the ”excess” manpower again on shoveling. I have been part of shoveling groups of up to 8 people and it worked really good. You rotate the first two guys, so they only work for 1-2 min with full power. The rest of the team clears the snow behind and simultaneously builds the platform to extract the victim. (Like you saw the do in the end)

[@OutForIt]

Thanks @@matthiasvolk6006! Very helpful advice.

[@gabrielharton2743]

I agree that 911 is situation dependent. Although I wouldn't call a ratio 4 searcher for 3 victims an ''excess'' of man power. I also feel like I would prioritise clearing airways faster over winning couple of minutes on help who's probably going to come many minutes or hours later.

[@debasishsen9397]

👍

[@tjb8841]

One more “Monday morning quarterback” comment (meaning, I know I don’t do as well as these “rescuers”: not walking across the victim, especially in a shallow burial. Once the probe was in, you can see several people walking right up to it, from different sides. And the final comment for these practices, I (try to)always pretend to clear the airway, check for breathing and start CPR. If I ever end up in a real rescue, I want those steps to be automatic. They did it on some victims, but not all.