- Winter Highlights
Patrol goes digital
Bear Valley Professional Snow Safety Team goes digital and selects the Pieps DSP
Submitted by: Chris Aguirre; Snow Safety Director, Bear Valley Mountain Resort
During the 2005/2006 season it was decided as a patrol that it was time to take a really hard look at our current avalanche beacons in use and determine if it was time to upgrade our beacons and move towards an advanced digital beacon for the entire patrol. Digital avalanche beacons have been around for a number of years, but the early models did not have the range or reliability that we were accustomed to with our analog beacons. I have been very satisfied with the performance of the single antennae analog beacons we have been using, but at the same time I was keeping a close eye on the evolving market as it was heading toward multiple antennae digital units. Even though I was seeing some headway with these new transceivers it wasn’t significant enough to warrant a 
change. Analog beacons work extremely well in the hands of a trained user and if we were going to make a change I wanted to make sure it was a high quality stable product, it would improve our search times for single and multiple burials, and significantly lower the learning curve of a new user. I knew that what we purchased was going to be with us for years and we would trust each other lives with these beacons. During that 2005/2006 season we ran hundreds of timed searches using all the latest beacons on the market along with our current analog beacons. The avalanche beacon that kept coming to the top during these test trails was the Piep DSP avalanche beacon. It just so happened that at this years International Snow Science Workshop there were representatives from all of the top avalanche beacon brands to show off their products. Again the Pieps DSP avalanche beacon stood out. Tom Adams from Liberty Mountain was there along with representatives from Pieps from Europe answering questions and displaying the latest in software the could be plugged into the DSP (Digital Signal Processor) beacon that has been out since 2003. The capability to have your Pieps DSP upgraded with the latest algorithms every year is an outstanding feature. This feature protects your investment by allowing your Piep DSP beacon to improve as software improvements are made. Three more points that were demonstrated were range tests, multiple victim burial and deep burial situations. I was pleased to see how well they nailed 3 out of the 3 points that previously I had found deficient in the digital transceivers that we tested in the prior years. Tom invited me to take a seminar that he was setting up for some of his retailers in the Tahoe area in the middle of November. He had everyone bring their personal transceiver to do range tests and compare other points with the Pieps DSP. After spending 6 hours of a combination classroom and field session, I was impressed. Ironically in the past one could spend more time on practicing search techniques with a new product, but this was a little different. Tom showed the group of 20 or so participants the buttons on the DSP and sent each one of us on a 3 burial scenario. There was no snow on the ground at the time due to the late season here in the Sierra, but it was clear that we were all tackling this challenge with ease; the average time was well below the average time that participants had gotten with their own transceivers that some had owned for a few seasons. We spent some time with deep burial demonstrations that were very convincing with no more null zones. I was sold. The technology is finally here. With the technical support from Tom 
Adams and Liberty Mountain and the comfort of a 5 year warranty, along with “rechargeable technology”, I feel comfortable on my decision to go with the Pieps DSP.
To be the best in recovery techniques, I know that we will have to continue our beacon training at the same pace that we have become accustomed to no matter what beacon we are using. I always attempt to instill in every new patroller that this particular patrol discipline is a very serious one, because of the simple fact that odds are we will be searching for one of our own team members. It’s a simple concept that the more successful your partner is in recovery techniques the better odds you will have to survive an avalanche accident.
Bear Valley Mountain Resort is operated under special use permit on the Stanislaus National Forest
