Thread: Avalanche Safety Device tested

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LAST PIC AVY THREE

Once again, Yikes! Thanks & Great job!

Thanks Frank......

Thanks also to Brent S of the Canadian Avalanche Association and Jordy of Revelstoke for dropping them bombs.....

Love,

the 2006 Avy crew

Here's a 20 cubic foot lift bag lifting a 650 pound snowmobile to the surface of an avalanche (class 2) we produced in the Wasatch Range near LeMoille, Nevada.....

The two snowmobiles are laying together in front of the leading edge of the avalanche. One sled has a lift bag attached to it and the other control sled has no lift bag...

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The snowmobile with the lift bag is in the center of the pic, but still buried. As the avalanche moves along, the lighter lift bag seeks the surface and sheds snow, called inverse grading. It looked like a mole tunneling under your yard. Eventually the snowmobile emerged......

Here you can see the snowmobile and lift bag emerge from the moving avalanche....

Here's the sled and lift bag on top, and the trench it dug through the snow....

Closer view. This testing was done in 2004 in the Ruby Mountains. Why keep a snowmobile on the surface? First, so it won't barrel roll the rider inside the avalanche (you can see the control sled rolling sideways down the hill, up and to the right of the test sled). Second, as visible search debris for your buddies to use to find you. Third, so you can fire up your machine and get back out of the mountains......

Just so you know that we have had some success, here's Adam after the first of three class 2 avalanches in Revelstoke from the 2005 testing season. We are using quite a bit less flotation than other avalanche flotation systems, so our test dummy is on the surface, but not on the surface. In each of the class 2 avalanche tests last year the lift bag was completely exposed on the surface, and the test dummies were mostly buried. So if this was you, could you dig yourself out?

Sorry, wrong pic. The above pic was after we excavated him. Here is how we found him...........

Doesn't look you'd have found him if he had skis or a snowboard attached.

Originally Posted by jtwassoc

It ends a little early as we had to drop the gear and run for our lives.

Originally Posted by jtwassoc

So everything looks good at this point, problem being there's a bomb sailing down the mountain inside the avalanche, most likely within a few yards of our dummies.......

The commentary makes this thread utterly entertaining. Some good work being done there man. Hey, to echo the point above, I'd really like to see the results of a test using dummies strapped into boards with and without the bags. Boards I gather act like an anchor, dragging you down.