PHYSICAL CULTURE | Gear Test With:

New York Times
December 2006
Wendy Knight & Christian Santelices

Christian Santelices, Mountain Guide; Lifelines Beneath the Snow

WHEN venturing into the backcountry, wearing a beacon can quicken rescue efforts immediately after an avalanche.

The devices are strapped to the chest and have two modes: send, the default, and receive, for detecting buried beacons. Speed is crucial, said Doug Chabot, the director of the Gallatin National Forest Avalanche Center in Bozeman, Mont., because the chance of surviving an avalanche is greatest within 20 minutes. Because of their short range, beacons are not very useful in finding missing outdoor enthusiasts, like the climbers who recently got lost on Mount Hood in Oregon, experts said.

Digital beacons have replaced analog as the industry standard, displaying the distance and the direction of a transmitting beacon. When using digital beacons, ''practice is essential,'' said Christian Santelices, a senior guide with Exum Mountain Guides in Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming, because each model conveys data differently. He spent a recent week in the Bridger-Teton National Forest testing four digital beacons.

According to standards for certified mountain guides, three beacons buried in a two and a half acre area should be found within six minutes. Wendy Knight

Tracker DTS $310 www.backcountrygear.com. Mr Santelices said the Tracker, the first digital beacon on the market, had the "fastest processing speed." He liked that it had a special mode to narrow the receiving range of the transmitter. While he considered this an "excellent beacon" that located a single beacon in 1 minute 43 seconds, he found that it required the most practice for multiple burials, because it flashed distance and direction for all the beacons at once.