You are NOT Logged in.
Chat about all aspects of snowsports, backcountry, climbing and mountaineering.
Goto Thread: PreviousNext
Goto: Forum ListMessage ListNew TopicSearchLog In
Shoogly


Posts: 23
Joined: Aug 2008
Last Visited: 11:46
12th Feb 2018
Transceiver practice - Hill End, Edinburgh - 19th November
Date Posted: 10.00hrs on Mon 7 Nov 11
Hi All,

I've started a thread over on snowheads to see if there's any interest in like minded people who wouldn't mind a bit of practice with their transceivers before the season starts.

I have no experience of arranging anything like this at all so please don't expect a top notch all signing all dancing training day. It's just for a bunch of like minded people to get out on the hill and make sure they've had at least some transceiver practice.

[snowheads.com]

If you are interested, please put your name down either here or on the snowheads thread and we can see what numbers are like. We can then head up the hill and try out various scenarios (dependent on numbers).

Meeting place is the car park at Midlothian Ski Centre at Hillend. There's a good area just to the east of the ski slope with a good aspect with a few nooks and crannies for hiding transceivers/bodies etc.

Can we make it earlyish, say 9.30? Then we can just walk up the side of the ski slope from there.

Cheers for now, Peter
timstirling


Posts: 520
Joined: Feb 2003
Last Visited: 01:20
12th Sep 2016
Re: Transceiver practice - Hill End, Edinburgh - 19th November
Date Posted: 11.36hrs on Mon 7 Nov 11
Forests can be good places where there are deep leaves to hide the beacon in.

It is good to try to bury the beacon in a large area of rough/steep terrain that takes energy to move over. Still, it can be relatively easy in such conditions so it is good to practice multiple burials to make it harder. The aim should be on getting good technique, not purely finding it in the fastest time since in a real life scenario a good technique to exhaustively scan the area is important, and to pin-point exactly where the beacon is without digging. It often happens that you can get within 1m of the victim but dig 1m away and you waste so much time that the victim would die. Use the cross/+ technique to find the minima (find the place to the left that give a signal of 1ft/0.5m, then scan to the right to find the opposite side with the same reading and mark the mid point, then do the same top and bottom, this can get you much closer to the true source.

To make things more realistic get the trainee to run hard for 5 minutes first so he is already out of breath, this may simulate if you are doing hard skiing in deep powder or are ski touring and already out of breath. I sometimes try to stress out the person by saying the victim is dieing etc, you want to make sure that the person can work well under pressure.

Points to look for is mistakes such as dropping the backpack containing shovel and probe before they go look for the victim, costing time when the beacon is found and requiring to collect the backpack.




In the end you really need snow, nothing like trying to cover a steep snowy slope to drain the energy. You can then also put the beacon in a large backpack to bury and can practice the probe techniques.
Shoogly


Posts: 23
Joined: Aug 2008
Last Visited: 11:46
12th Feb 2018
Re: Transceiver practice - Hill End, Edinburgh - 19th November
Date Posted: 11.09hrs on Mon 14 Nov 11
Cancelled due to lack of interest.
DavyGunn


Posts: 38
Joined: Apr 2006
Last Visited: 08:26
16th Mar 2020
Re: Transceiver practice - Hill End, Edinburgh - 19th November
Date Posted: 14.47hrs on Mon 14 Nov 11
Wait until folk are a bit more wired up when snow comes and I am sure you will get more takers - or come and have a go in Glencoes beacon park


Shoogly Wrote:
Cancelled due to lack of interest.

Shoogly


Posts: 23
Joined: Aug 2008
Last Visited: 11:46
12th Feb 2018
Re: Transceiver practice - Hill End, Edinburgh - 19th November
Date Posted: 16.45hrs on Thu 17 Nov 11
back on due to slightly more interest. should be at least 3 of us there. please let us know if you're coming as then we'll know how many to wait for.

meeting at the entrance to midlothian snow sports centre at hillend, just outside the door to the reception area.
Your Name: 
Your Email: 
Subject: