fuyugakuru

I don't know if this is too late for you but I have been looking for first aid courses myself and found one that Wildmed Japan are doing in English in a couple of weeks. It is a two day Wilderness First Aid course. It is done by the same people who do WIlderness First Responder. I found it pretty hard to find any English courses so hopefully that helps.

Haha, except I 'aint an avi educator. No extra pocket money for me unfortunately. Please fogive the tendencies of a pedant. I wasn't trying to tell this stuff to you. Instead it was directed at the other people reading this thread without avi education who might have gotten the wrong idea from your post. I agree that watching the videos is better than nothing and I even said that in my post above as well. Saying that you get 95% of the experience of the course from watching a video is just a misrepresentation, however. Agreed, day 1 is just gaining knowledge as it is normally just

^^^ Wrong. You don't get avi education for the certificate. It is for obtaining knowledge and then gaining experience of applying that knowledge in the field: doing a realistic rescue practice, for example. One of the most important parts of dealing with avalanche hazard is terrain management. This can't be taught in books or videos, you have to get experience travelling through the BC safely, preferably with somebody with a lot of backcountry experience. Watching a video doesn't give you any experience, only knowledge. If you want to gain knowledge, videos are a good place to star

You can take Avalanche Safety Trainling (AST) level 1 and 2 in Japan, both in Hakuba and Niseko. I don't know about AST 2 but you can take AST 1 in Australia as well. They are all the Canadian model course. You don't need to go to NZ or Canada to take the recreational level courses (though that would be fun too). I would highly recommend getting AST 1.

The auto-revert feature could be useful but I don't think beginners or people unfamiliar with their beacons should be using it. A beacon going back to transmit and messing up a search is a far bigger risk than a second avalanche. It’s one more thing you have to remember in the crazy stress of a rescue situation; you are not going to be thinking clearly. Time is extremely critical so this could potentially make the difference between life and death for the buried victim. Another thing to consider is that the safety of the rescuers comes first. The first thing you have to do is assess wh

You need to read your beacon manual. There is a setting on the BCA Tracker DTS, which can be turned on or off, that will make it automatically revert to transmit after five minutes in search mode. When you turn the beacon on, it will show either Ar (automatic revert on) or nr (no revert) after it does its self testing. Check the manual for how to change the setting. The manual is available online if you don’t have it any more. I would recommend turning it off if you are forgetting about it and letting your transceiver revert to transmit. Both 2 antenna and 3 antenna beacons have to

Searching forums is probably the best way to get good info on gear. I have found that there tends to be more quality reviews for skis on the internet than for snowboards though. Has anyone else found that too? People will actually post detailed and useful info about skis on forums whereas it is more superficial for boards. It is quite frustrating and I wonder why that is. I guess actually demoing the planks you are considering buying blows reading reviews out of the water and then some anyway.

Hi guys, new face round here. Just thought I would point out that a 3 antennae beacon is only better than a 2 antennae when searching for another beacon. It doesn't make a difference when they are in transmit mode, i.e. when you are buried and somebody is searching for you. This. The best beacon to have is the one you know how to use. The most important thing is to get the training and frequently practice using your beacon in realistic situations. Get a friend to ski ahead and bury a beacon and then you can go through the search and dig it out on a slope. Just searching