Avalanche Training Center
Overview
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Hint
Intro
At the Pischa in Davos, a permanent training installation for the instrument-guided search of avalanche victims is operational. It allows all amateurs of this activity to train under close-to-real conditions.
This is a offer, free of charge and accessible to everyone with no particular preparation needed. The training area (almost 100m x 100m) in medium steep terrain resembles closely to the natural cone of an avalanche. In this zone, there are 16 GPS transmitters with strong batteries lasting all winter hidden more or less deeply in the snow. These transmitters may be activated over radio frequencies from a local steering center. As with a real avalanche, the training rescuers do not know the position of the transmitters. To make things even more real, it is technically possible to activate only one or several transmitters, thus applying the principle of random dispersion.
The only difference with reality is the fact that transmitters are not dug out of the snow, once they have been precisely located. For a final localization, exploratory holes are drilled into the snow. The transmitters are equipped with plastic containers featuring pre-defined surfaces to be touched, emitting automatic signals when this is done correctly. Once the trainees touch the plastic container with their sounding pole, the transmitter is considered to be found, and thus stops emitting signals.
