RECCO system used to rescue German woman burried for 45 minutes.

[truth]

HINTERSTEIN, GERMANY (Jan 11. 2006) – On New Year's Eve, a 29-year old German woman who was caught in an avalanche and trapped under 1.5 meters of snow was pinpointed with the RECCO® avalanche rescue system and recovered alive after being completely buried for 45 minutes.

The woman and her partner had been snowshoeing to a backcountry cabin when the slide hit, swept her 150 meters downhill and trapped her under 1.5 meters of debris in a narrow, hard-to-reach gully. The backcountry traveler caught in the slide was not wearing a transceiver even though the avalanche danger in the surrounding mountains was rated considerable on the international scale that day.

Luckily her partner was not caught and placed a cell phone call to police, who then deployed Mountain Rescue of Hinterstein. Two rescuers equipped with an avalanche dog and a RECCO® detector were immediately transported to the accident scene by helicopter, ahead of a rapidly approaching storm and descending darkness. After a 15-minute search, the buried woman was located with the RECCO detector, pinpointed with probes and subsequently dug out alive and conscious. Three hours after the slide, she was transported by military rescue helicopter to a nearby hospital where she has since recovered from the ordeal.

Even though RECCO has been globally adopted by ski resorts and is utilized often as a method of off-piste avalanche rescue, this successful recovery occurred far removed from the nearest ski slope. A convergence of factors led to the successful utilization of this technology in the backcountry, including cell phone coverage in the incident area, a rapid air-based rescue response and a buried victim who was detectable by the avalanche rescue system, which is able to pinpoint RECCO® reflectors integrated into commercially available ski wear, boots and protection gear. More specific details about the avalanche incident can be learned by contacting Magnus Granhed, RECCO founder and CEO, at magnus.granhed@recco.com.

About RECCO® Avalanche Rescue System

RECCO® is an avalanche rescue system utilized by 440 organizations worldwide to assist in the efficient location of burials. RECCO® enables rapid directional pinpointing of a victim’s precise location using harmonic radar. The two-part system consists of a RECCO® detector used by organized rescue groups, and RECCO® reflectors that are integrated into commercially available products. Although similar in search procedure to transceivers, the RECCO system is not intended for companion rescue and works as a complement to transceiver use in the backcountry. More information about RECCO can be found at www.recco.com.

[greg]

the question you have got to ask is: would this woman have been buried or would she have been wearing a transciever if recco would not have made her believe that she is well protected with this stupid reflector?

why wasn't she wearing a beacon? probably because she was wearing a reflector. why didn't she pay attention to the high avy danger? probably because she felt prepared buying recco.

[iceman]

the question you have got to ask is: would this woman have been buried or would she have been wearing a transciever if recco would not have made her believe that she is well protected with this stupid reflector?

why wasn't she wearing a beacon? probably because she was wearing a reflector. why didn't she pay attention to the high avy danger? probably because she felt prepared buying recco.

Pure speculation and more likely than not incorrect. It's more likely that she never even considered avalanche danger at all since she was just going snowshoeing and the reflector saved her life.

[edg]

A lot of companies, TNF for example, have started sticking RECCO reflectors in everything they conceivably can. More likely than not she had one such jacket (or boots, or pants, etc.) and that saved her life.

RECCO gets a lot of shit, but, at the end of the day, it is yet another tool to help save peoples' lives.

edg

[greg]

Pure speculation and more likely than not incorrect. It's more likely that she never even considered avalanche danger at all since she was just going snowshoeing and the reflector saved her life.

more likely than not, you havn't seen their marketing strategies in alpine resorts. and more likely than not you havn't been to one of their press conferences introducing their product to the media and have neither seen the reports on german television nor read the articles in german tabloids.

their campaign is a lie and gives people a false sense of security. and I actually do not want to know how many skiers are skiing off piste here in europe (remember we don't have inbound areas) because they feel save with those reflectors. and even don't want to think about how many people died because of this misjudgement compared to how many lives recco actually saved.

recco is good for bodyrecovery which I totally support thinking of the poor rescuers searching in hazardeous areas. that's what they should campaign, but of course their product would not sale as well.

[Snow Dog]

the question you have got to ask is: would this woman have been buried or would she have been wearing a transciever if recco would not have made her believe that she is well protected with this stupid reflector?

why wasn't she wearing a beacon? probably because she was wearing a reflector. why didn't she pay attention to the high avy danger? probably because she felt prepared buying recco.

A lot of hikers don't use beacons because they stick to low angle slopes where they think there's no avalanche danger. They don't carry shovels or probes or take an avy course either.

[greg]

so what? they should use recco instead? I agree, but not for security reasons but to facilitate the work of mountain rescue.

[Snow Dog]

so what? they should use recco instead? I agree, but not for security reasons but to facilitate the work of mountain rescue.

I've never heard of recco being used here (Vancouver, British Columbia).

[summit]

I fully support RECCO. It could save your life inbounds.

This however makes me nervous:

Grail also said a number of people contacted at the Pass were wearing Recco reflectors and thought that they were therefore covered as far as avalanche safety.

http://www.summitdaily.com/article/2...37/0/FRONTPAGE

Clearly much more education in their publicity is needed...

[altagirl]

A lot of hikers don't use beacons because they stick to low angle slopes where they think there's no avalanche danger. They don't carry shovels or probes or take an avy course either.

That's what I think. She probably figured she was just going for a walk with snowshoes and didn't consider avy danger at all.

[bakers_dozen]

i'm pretty sure whistler uses it now too

[adam]

I think that a Recco is better than nothing, but is definitely not something that should be relied upon in the backcountry. Beacons and Reccos are like helmets. They can prevent death, but they are not a guarantee to do so, and people have to take that into consideration before they step off the piste.

[altaski]

Greg I really just dont buy your arguement...sure I agree with you that recco could do better to show the true use of their product, but I doubt that lady would have had a beacon anyway. I dont know of many people who buy recco thinking they are avalanche proof...and any people that do do that probably arent going to use or know how to use a beacon anyway. So yeah I would say recco has saved this ladies life, why argue about it?