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Death starts beacon query
Skier questions transceiver standards after futile search for buried partner.

By Bill Curran

Avalanche survivor Tom Burlingame said Monday he was "blown away" when he learned his broken transceiver was not built to withstand the impacts of a deadly avalanche.

Burlingame survived a 600-foot ride in an avalanche Feb. 10 that killed ski partner Steve Haas. During the slide, Burlingame's transceiver, a device used to locate buried victims who are wearing like-frequency beacons, was smashed by a rock and rendered useless.

Burlingame said he was shocked that his beacon was ruined by the slide, but even more surprised to learn of the limited industry standards. Industry representatives confirmed this week that there are no U.S. impact-resistance requirements for avalanche transceivers.

European standards, which many U.S. manufacturers meet and exceed, require only that transceivers survive a one-meter drop onto wood or a two-meter drop on compacted sand. Those standards are set by a telecommunications institute that oversees electronic devices like cell phones and radios, not climbing or skiing organizations that are charged with setting standards for alpine gear like ropes, ice axes and crampons.

Industry representatives said they make transceivers tougher than required by the European institute, that Burlingame's experience was unusual, and that constructing transceivers requires a balance to ensure they don't become prohibitively expensive.

Burlingame's education in transcievers came rudely fter the avalanche swept Haas and him down Hourglass Couloir in a closed area at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort. Burlingame said he reached for his transceiver to begin a search for Haas, who was buried. But his transceiver, a 2002 Ortovox M2, had been warped by the impact of the slide and reported contradictory information.

The high-tech digital beacon indicated Burlingame should switch it to the setting that allows for the greatest range of detection. But it was already at that setting, he said.

After a moment of despair, Burlingame abandoned the beacon search and was able to locate and assemble his probe poles. Burlingame, in a state of fear and disbelief, looked for visual clues and deposition areas, he said.

He probed in vain for five minutes until another skier arrived on the scene with a functional transceiver.

Burlingame and Morgan Wion used Wion's Ortovox F2, an older analog transceiver, to find Haas in about seven minutes. They spent eight to 10 minutes uncovering Haas, who was buried face down with his head downhill. Haas had suffocated under about four feet of snow.

The nine-year veteran of the Tetons and former ski guide compared the realization his beacon was broken to a child waking up without a security blanket. "It was like my blanky, and my blanky didn't work," he said.

Burlingame then contacted Ortovox to report the tragedy and the performance of his beacon. Marcus Peterson, general manager of Ortovox USA, said the transceiver was not manufactured to survive the kind of impacts it suffered when Burlingame was swept over rocks and cliff bands.

Ortovox beacons are built to exceed a standard that requires beacons function after being dropped from a height of two meters onto compacted sand, he said. The France-based European Tele-communications Standards Institute states the beacons must be dropped three times onto a different side each time to pass the test, Peterson said.

Burlingame, 32, was amazed. "When they told me me the European testing standards, I was absolutely blown away," he said. "It should be able to take a better shot than my average Motorola cell phone."

Peterson declined to say by how much Ortovox exceeds the industry standards or what tests beacons pass.

Bruce Edgerly, co-owner of Backcountry Access Inc., which makes the Tracker DTS beacon, said transceivers should be treated with the same care as a climbing rope. "Your life depends on that thing so you should treat it accordingly," he said.

While climbing rope and avalanche beacons are survival gear relied upon by mountaineers, their safety standards are set by vastly different organizations. The International Climbing and Mountaineering Federation, an organization dedicated to alpine issues and safety, sets thresholds for rope safety. The European Telecommunications Standards Institute, on the other hand, is a technology group. The institute works toward worldwide standardization in telecommunications, broadcasting and information technology.

Burlingame incorrectly believed beacons were built to withstand the enormous falls and impacts that avalanches can produce. The last thing he expected to fail was his transceiver, a fundamental piece of snow country survival gear.

But Peterson is quick to point out the Ortovox did not fail, at least according to industry standards, which do not anticipate an ordeal such as Burlingame's.

Burlingame said a wave of snow washed him 100 feet down the couloir and into rocks at the top of a cliff band. He "drilled" the rocks, beacon-first. "The corner of the transceiver took most of the hit," he said.

The impact drove the beacon into Burlingame's side, cracking two ribs and tearing the muscle between them.

The beacon snagged the rocks, momentarily slowing Burlingame's slide before he plummeted over a 50-foot cliff band. Burlingame said the transceiver's collision with the rock may have slowed him sufficiently to keep him above the rush of snow that buried Haas.

An Ortovox casing is designed to protect the device against everyday handling, such as dropping a beacon when handing to a friend, Peterson said. The Ortovox Web site, www.ortovox.com, describes the M2 casing as "secure against accidental knocks."

The European Telecom-munications Standards Institute Web site, www.etsi.org, reports a different, impact standard than the one cited by Peterson. Beacons must function after being dropped six times on a hard wooden surface from a height of one meter, according to the site.

Both standards are insufficient, Burlingame said. "If it can't survive at least a 30-foot fall onto pavement, then don't sell ... them."

But Peterson said bolstering the casing would be expensive. "There has to be a happy medium between strength and cost," Peterson said. "We're not going to do something 20 times the standard if it's going to cost us $30 more at wholesale because nobody will buy the beacons."

Edgerly said he found the Institute standards "inadequate" when his company entered the beacon market in 1997 with its Tracker DTS. "When we initially designed the Tracker we thought the drop test standard was pretty weak," he said. "I think there's been good progress, but in general they're not stringent."

Edgerly said the Tracker, a popular digital beacon and competitor of the Ortovox M2, is designed so it will function after being dropped from two meters onto concrete.

The Institute's standards leave room for companies to enter the transceiver market with even more fragile gear. One such company produced an inferior version of an Ortovox beacon, Edgerly said.

Transceivers also are subject to a test to make sure they are waterproof, among other standards. Beacons must transmit during and after a one-hour submersion in 15 cm of water.

North American companies do not have to meet the standards set by the Institute, Edgerly said. They only need to produce beacons that transmit at the set frequency of 457 kHz.

However, if American companies want to sell their product in Europe they must comply with rules, he said. Since Europe comprises a large percentage of the transceiver market, American companies have a major incentive to meet the European standards.

Transceivers are rarely crushed in slides and when they are, the impact with rocks and general trauma of the slide that breaks the beacon often kills the skier as well, Edgerly said.

One-third of avalanche victims are killed by trauma, not suffocation, said Tom Kimbrough, longtime Utah avalanche forecaster and Grand Teton National Park climbing ranger.

But Burlingame survived the Feb. 10 slide and his transceiver did not. And the lack of a working transceiver cost Burlingame five precious minutes in his search for Haas.

Burlingame is not sure a functional beacon would have saved his "ski mentor." "Even if it had worked, there's not a guarantee I would have been able to get him out," Burlingame said.

However, turning the clock back five minutes would mean Haas would have spent about 15 minutes buried rather than 20. And 15 minutes is a threshold of survival.

If found within 15 minutes of burial, there is a 90 percent chance avalanche victims will not suffocate, Kimbrough said.

Burlingame said he is certain the transceiver was working before the slide. He and a friend have since tested it, confirming the transceiver no longer functions properly. Skiers set transcievers in broadcast mode when setting out. After an avalanche, searchers switch them to receive to home in on buried victims.

The damaged Ortovox turns on and receives a signal, but it reports information inaccurately and inconsistently, Burlingame said. He hid a beacon 10 feet from the Ortovox, which indicated the other transceiver was first 40 meters, then 28 meters and finally 32 meters distant within three minutes.

Several experienced backcountry skiers and avalanche forecasters recalled a few instances in which transceivers were crushed.

Mike Keating, who buys transceivers and other hard goods for Teton Mountaineering, said a customer brought in a transceiver with a broken casing last year. But Keating said it look as if a car had been driven over the beacon. "It had definitely been abused," he said.

Kimbrough said a "smashed" beacon is mounted on the wall of the Alpine Meadows, Calif., ski patrol cabin. The beacon was crushed in 1982 when an avalanche struck the cabin. "It's kept as a trophy of what can happen to a beacon," he said.

Kimbrough said beacons are usually more durable than their owners. "Lots and lots of people are dug out dead with operating beacons," he said. "I consider them pretty darn sturdy, but I don't toss my beacon around either. I'd be interested in knowing what sort of forces Ortovox applies to the beacons."

Keating added, how a skier wears a beacon can affect how the device is protected in aslide. Wearing a transceiver in an armpit, for example, may help protect it in a fall, he said.

Burlingame wore his transceiver on his left side and lower back and said he would have worn the beacon in a more protected area if he had known how fragile the equipment is.

Keating said the brands carried by Teton Mountaineering are well-made. "Nobody builds a bad product but this impact issue does have us concerned," he said.

All beacons are electronic and hence somewhat sensitive, he said. "It would certainly hold up better than your Walkman if you dropped it," he said. "But a Walkman isn't survival gear."

While transceivers rarely break during slides, Keating said customers have brought a wide variety of defective transceivers to his shop looking for information about warranties and how to return them to manufacturers.

He said beacon manufacturers, including Ortovox, have an excellent track record of honoring warranties. "But if you're out in the field and need to use it, that doesn't help you," he said.

To protect against this problem, the experts universally advocate testing beacons before every expedition or ski tour to make sure they transmit and receive signals.

However sturdy or fragile beacons may be, Kimbrough said backcountry travellers should not consider the protection offered by their transceiver when making terrain decisions. "If you ski something that you wouldn't [normally] ski because you have a beacon, you are making a mistake," he said.

The Bridger-Teton National Forest Avalanche Hazard is updated daily at www.jhavalanche.org and 733-2664.

While Burlingame was shocked at the performance of his transceiver, he said he should not have needed it. "We shouldn't have been there in the first place," he said of avalanche-prone Hourglass Couloir.

Avalanche danger was "considerable" at high elevations on Feb. 10.

Burlingame said he arrived at the Mountain Resort about noon, boarded the tram and ran into his old friend Haas.

Haas and Burlingame triggered the avalanche at midday in Hourglass Couloir, an in-bounds but closed area north of the Aerial Tram at the Mountain Resort. A snow slab swept the men 600 vertical feet down the couloir.

The skiers were edging their way into position to ski the couloir; neither had begun a descent, Burlingame said. Haas was about 25 feet below his partner when the slab broke above them.

Hourglass Couloir is a "very active and dangerous avalanche path," according to the Bridger-Teton Avalanche Center. The slide began at about 10,100 feet above sea level on a wind-loaded north-east facing slope with a pitch of about 40 degrees.

Burlingame, who was not planning on skiing the backcountry on Feb. 10., said he would have skied the couloir even without a transceiver. "I still would have gone over there because I trusted Steve with my life," he said.

Haas had skied similar aspects earlier that day, but Burlingame said far more snow had blown into the couloir than the pair expected.

"The last thing he said to me was, 'It'll be fine,'" Burlingame said.

Haas knew the terrain and had outstanding judgment, but on Feb. 10 friends say he made a mistake. Burlingame said the events leading to his death were driven by something more than bad luck. "It breaks my heart and I really don't think I was supposed to save him."

Burlingame said the avalanche felled an unlikely "king" of the Tetons. "Steve was the soul of Jackson, that's all there is to it," he said. "You'd think the king of Jackson Hole would be some cowboy skier, but it was actually some Jewish kid from ... Long Island."

Haas's death is the fourth avalanche fatality in Teton County this season and the sixth in Wyoming.

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