Lessons from Genswein: for Experts Only!

As in any professional career, it’s important to stay current on your education. That’s why at BCA we regularly put our sales, marketing and customer service staff through AIARE and CAA avalanche courses. And that’s why I took a two-day workshop at Copper Mountain, Colo. last month with Swiss avalanche rescue führer Manuel Genswein. This is the third workshop I’ve attended with Genswein and my conclusion remains the same: For experts only!

Manuel Genswein debriefs the participants at his recent rescue clinic at Copper Mountain.

Attending a Genswein clinic is good entertainment: he has a brilliant sense of humor, speaks five languages, and he has a uniquely high-pitched and heavily accented voice reminiscent of the similarly corpulent General Burkhalter in the 1960’s sitcom Hogan’s Heroes. Manuel is brilliant and knowledgeable on his subject, but course attendees need to be prepared to discuss the complex issues that surround avalanche topics. Imagine Trigonometry vs. Multiplication. His Friday evening lecture on beacon technology, shoveling, triage, and airbags was very useful and provided good context for the field sessions on Saturday. The field sessions: it’s always tough to put on good avalanche field sessions and we love attending those put on by others so we can learn from them. It was good to see we’re not the only ones who struggle with manpower when on snow. Genswein is still a firm believer in analog beacons. His micro-search-strip method for close proximity multiple burials requires the use of analog and other “backup” modes for establishing what he calls a “mental map” of the scenario. In our experience, we’ve learned that micro-search-strip works pretty darn well with our Tracker and Tracker 2 beacons and that practice is critical.

Genswein spent a good portion of the course illustrating how transceiver “marking” functions can sometimes fail when the victim’s signals are overlapping. In this video, taken at BCA headquarters in Boulder, he explains the backup method he uses, which involves going to analog mode and doing “micro-seach strips.”

Genswein’s demonstration of his V-shaped Conveyor shoveling method was valuable to experience. It is heavily dependant on manpower and is focused on dealing with extremely hard debris. These are factors mainly limited to organized-rescue scenarios, not companion rescues, so are not directly applicable to typical recreationists. He set up several other field scenarios to practice “micro-box” searching, signal searching (how to rotate your beacon for maximum range), and close-proximity multiple burials.

The V-Shaped Conveyor is extremely effective with adequate manpower. For a review of this technique and Strategic Shoveling (more for companion rescue), see

Genswein is a well-respected and highly accomplished leader in the avalanche safety industry. He teaches avalanche rescue courses worldwide, mainly to organized rescue groups, military, and ski patrols. His work is truly valuable in this context but recreationists need to start with an AIARE or CAC course.