About “Beacon”【Necessity item of climbing in a snowy mountain】

About “Beacon”【Necessity item of climbing in a snowy mountain】

Beacon is one of the nessicity item to bring in a snowy mountain with possibility of avalanche. We will introduce the function of “beacon” and usage of it which is also counted as one of the three Imperial regalias of Japan in a snowy mountain.

What is beacon? -the function-【Necessity item of climbing in a snowy mountain】

Beacon is the item for “to search if you are buried in an avalnche” and “a role of informing of where you are when you are buried”.You don’t need to perform any special operation, just turning on the power and to carry it. It is necessary to know about your beacon what kind of beacon is, since the operation method and the alert sound are different depending on the model.

A type of beacon【Necessity item of climbing in a snowy mountain】

Analog type

Analog type is a beacon which has a antenna. The reception sensitivity is better than digital and the analog type can receive a wide range of radio waves.

Digital type

Digital type has 1 ~ 3 antennas. A model with more antennas can be said to be a high performance model. But the reception sensitivity will be inferior to the analog type. The beacon calculate the location based on radio waves received from multiple antennas.

How to use “beacon”? – when you search victims –

It is said that if a man is more than 15 minutes elapse after burying in snow, the survival rate will deteriorate. When getting involved in an avalanche, immediately switch the beacon from transmission mode to reception mode.

In preparation for recurrence of the avalanche. You will search victims by your beacon leaving a guard duty.

When the rough position of victims is found with the beacon, the location is specified with the probe (sonde bar).

Even if the face of the buried person comes out, the man cannot breath because snow may clog the mouth and the nose. For this reason, airway securing is the top priority at the beginning.

Warmly keep the rescuer as much as possible. If bleeding is severe, hemostasis allowance is also done.

Safety gear set

Summarize this column

In snowy mountaineering, you need to know about snow mountain items and the experience actually used them. Espescielly, you need to learn the beacon confirmation and usage. From the characteristics of the beacon, the survival rate can raise bringing the beacon such as the same manufacturer and same model with the buddies.

When challenging to snowy mountaineering, we recommend to participant getting hands-on training on mountain guide taking measures against avalanches in addition to check beacons.


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