Guides and airbags: a new “standard of care?”

At the 2011 meeting of the International Commission on Alpine Rescue (ICAR), an interesting question from the Norwegian delegate turned heads: “Is it ethical for a guide to use an airbag, but not offer one to all of his clients?” It’s a legitimate question, especially considering some conclusive evidence at the meeting, held last month in Are, Sweden. The Italian delegate, Stefano Pivot, described several airbag success stories in his country, including one guide whose life was saved with an ABS airbag. His client, however, was caught in the same avalanche, but was not equipped with an airbag—and wasn’t so lucky. Norwegian delegate Albert Lunde described an incident in the renowned Telemark region of Norway in which three people were caught in an avalanche. The two people with airbags stayed on top and survived. The one without an airbag was buried and killed. Canadian delegate Ian Tomm cited a similar case in Canada involving a guide who survived with an airbag and a guest that didn’t. He added later that preliminary results from an exhaustive Canadian research project was showing promising results for airbags. The Swiss delegate, avalanche commission chairman Hans Juerg Etter, said that avalanche tests organized last year by his organization, the Swiss Federal Avalanche Institute, confirmed their findings from nearly ten years ago that airbags are extremely effective in preventing avalanche burials. Given the increasing body of evidence regarding the effectiveness of airbags, respected ICAR veteran Lunde asked the conference’s avalanche commission whether there were “ethical questions” that need to be addressed in the future. “By not offering everyone an airbag, isn’t this similar to being on a ship and only having two life jackets for three people?” He said that if a guide has one airbag (i.e. for himself), he should have enough for the entire group.   Lunde’s proposal stirred some unrest, many in the room being guides themselves who could be subject to major investment if airbags become a new “standard of care.” After all, when the ICAR avalanche commission makes a recommendation, people listen—at least in Europe. This was the same group that changed the avalanche transceiver frequency standard from 2.275 Hz to 457 kHz nearly 15 years ago. You can be sure that when the commission meets in Poland at this time next year, all ears will be trained on Lunde.