avalanche victim rescued with tracker dts

A Montana snowmobiler rescued a companion from beneath four feet of snow Sunday using the Backcountry Access Tracker DTS avalanche beacon. Donnie Beer, 35, of Columbus, Mont., used the transceiver to save the life of 36-year-old Scott Olsen of Billings, who was also wearing a Tracker.

Beer, Olsen, and a third companion, Tyler Reichert, triggered the avalanche as they were riding up a slope on the east side of Miller Creek near Cooke City, according to a report by the Gallatin National Forest Avalanche Center. Beer escaped to the side, Reichert was caught briefly, and Olsen was completely buried. Olsen said he saw the slide approach and tried unsuccessfully to veer away. He tumbled, made swimming motions, and tried to clear an air space before the slide stopped. Beer and Reichert performed a brief primary search before acquiring the signal. Eventually Beer finished the search, as Reichert was having difficulties using his transceiver, according to Beer. Reichert was using a single-antenna, analog transceiver. After Beer pinpointed Olsen with the Tracker DTS, he excavated him and cleared his airway, all within 15 minutes. Olsen was unconscious, but immediately started breathing after he was recovered. A secondary survey revealed a broken tibia. After splinting, he was evacuated by Cooke City Search and Rescue.
 
"I'm really impressed," Beer said afterward, "the Tracker is the only way to go, especially after seeing how Tyler's beacon worked. In fact, a couple days later I went out and got my brother one." Olsen said he has owned his Tracker for several years, and attributed his survival to the beacons and an avalanche course he took several years ago.

Both said the incident reinforced not only the importance of wearing a beacon and taking an avalanche course, but also the importance of carrying your shovel and probe in a backpack, not on your sled. All three riders' sleds were buried at the time of the search. Only Beer had his shovel accessible, in the backpack he was wearing. If it had been on his sled, he certainly would not have excavated Olsen in time to save his life. After 15 minutes beneath the snow, the chances of survival drop dramatically.

The hard-slab avalanche released on a south-facing slope at an elevation of 9,650 feet, according to Doug Chabot of the Gallatin National Forest Avalanche Center, who reported to the scene to assist in the evacuation and document the incident. The slide was 2-4 feet deep, 300 feet wide and ran 400 feet vertical, Chabot said. During the previous 3 days, over 30 inches of snow had fallen with westerly winds averaging 20-40 mph and gusting into the 60s, creating wind-loaded, hard slab conditions.

For more information about Backcountry Access and its line of avalanche safety products, call 303/417-1345 stop by its website at www.bcaccess.com.