[Wilderness first aid certification]

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.

[beacons]

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 a lecture and could be learned by reading, and probably in more depth too. Day 2 is in the field though and you can only gain experience by doing it, not watching a video. That's pretty self explanatory. So you don't really gain any of the experience watching it, just the knowledge. We are arguing semantics, but it is still important to make the distinction.

 

Better than taking a course, which is only really a very basic starting point, would be to find a friend who is experienced in the backcountry and willing to go touring with you. Experience of making good decisions in the backcountry far outweighs any learning from a book or in a classroom. The alternative is booking some time with a qualified backcountry guide but that could get expensive.

[beacons]

^^^ 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 start. Even better is to go through the free online course that the Canadian Avalanche Association does and / or read Bruce Tremper's Staying Alive in Avalanche Terrain. This is just a start, however, you have to apply that knowledge in the backcountry and gain experience. In fact, most of the avalanche safety videos make a point of saying that the video is not enough and that you need to get some education.

 

If you end up not taking the course, watching the videos and reading up on avalanches is better than nothing. Just don't expect that to be anywhere near equal to the experience you will gain taking an actual avalanche safety course.

 

Not wanting to miss ski days by taking a course is a problem, especially if you are on are short holiday. The course is still really fun though and there is a different pleasure you can get from improving your avalanche awareness and travelling more safely in the backcountry. Maybe do it a different year in a different place where you don't have to travel from Rusutsu to Niseko to do the course. Maybe spend some time in Niseko or Hakuba, where they do courses.

[beacons]

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.

[beacons]

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 whether the area is safe before doing a rescue. If there is a high risk of a second avalanche burying the rescuers, you probably shouldn’t attempt a rescue. If the rescuers get buried, who is going to rescue them? You could get someone to not join the rescue and just keep a watch out for any other avalanches coming and warn the rescuers if one does. Whether the rescuers would be able to outrun another avalanche is another matter. These are hard decisions but things would only get worse if more people end up buried.

 

This is why making the right decisions before getting into an avalanche in the backcountry is so crucial. Self rescue using a beacon, probe and shovel just isn’t very effective. If you make poor terrain choices and end up in a terrain trap, you would most likely be buried so deep that there would be very little chance of you being alive when you get dug out. Only 4% of people who were alive when dug out were buried below 2 m.

 

If you are alive when you get dug out, that is just the beginning. You may have lost your skis / board or have injuries, either of which could prevent you from being able to move through the terrain. How are you going to get back to civilisation and get medical support?

 

Avalanches are avoidable so just don’t risk it if you aren’t sure about the stability of a slope. It’s not worth it.

[beacons]

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.

 

Ive mentioned this before, but the expectation of the numbers you think youre going to see, and the actual numbers on the screen bare no relationship to one another until you learn how to follow a flux line. And that takes practice. If youre an old hand and know all this then obviously 2 antenna is no problem. Youll be no less quick out there. But if youre new, and your chances of practicing are marginal, in a shitty situation youll want the three antenna.

Both 2 antenna and 3 antenna beacons have to follow flux lines. The only thing the third antenna helps with is eliminating‘spikes’ where you lose the signal while doing the fine search. That being said, three antenna beacons are much better for the fine search and are simpler to use because of that.

 

If you are new and your chances of practicing are marginal, you should not be getting into shitty situations. You have to actively choose to expose yourself to avalanche hazards so make the right decisions to avoid them in the first place. If you make a bad decision and someone triggers an avalanche, the victim needs to get unburied within 10 minutes to get a decent chance of survival (80-90%). By 35 minutes the survival rate drops to about 10%. If you haven’t practiced, you are likely to take too long and dig out a dead friend.

 

On that point, aside the course, the majority of my practice time came realistically from wandering around my boarding house finding the people who forgot to switch off their beacons after a day out on niseko. Its a great way to meet people d: Its all good practice for a two antenna since 3 meters might in fact just be downstairs and not in fact 3 meters away - all shit you need to learn about and work on).

While it may be a good way to meet people, this is pretty useless for practicing for a rescue situation. You should practice on the snow with a buried beacon in a bag that you have to search for, probe and then dig out. Digging takes the most time in a rescue so you need to practice digging efficiently and in the right place based on your probing. Otherwise, you are going to be woefully unprepared for the real thing.

[reviews blues]

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.

[beacons]

Hi guys, new face round here.

 

go 3 antennae. better chance of being found and finding.

then practice lots and do a bc course.

 

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.

 

knowing how to use it effectively and being educated on avalanche terrain is far more important than what beacon you decide to buy.

 

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 for it on a flat bit of snow covered car park isn’t as useful.

 

I would second that the pieps dsp is a good beacon. The harness that comes with it is not so great though. I would consider using a different one or a bib pocket so that you can get it out quickly in an emergency. I found the pieps harness can hold onto it like the beacon was its long lost child finally reunited. Have you found this the same gozaimas? A couple of new dsp models have just come out as well but I would go for the older dsp smart (not the tour) as that one is tried and tested.