Around noon on Tuesday, December 22, 2009, a pair of skiers triggered an avalanche that ran 20 meters flank-to-flank by 300 meters crown-to-toe on the Col de Mottets at France’s Valmorel ski area. The slide left one skier stuck waist deep in snow and his sister buried under 1.5 meters of hardened avalanche debris. Neither skier carried avalanche gear of any sort. Their father alerted ski patrol with a cell phone.
At first glance this scenario might sound like a recipe for a body recovery and easily could have been. But the incident ended up the first successful RECCO rescue recorded in the 2009-2010 winter season. The lucky victim was dug out within 20-30 minutes of burial and escaped with only a mild case of hypothermia.
Magnus Granhed conceived of the RECCO system after a tragic avalanche in 1973 at Are, Sweden. Today about 600 resorts, parks, and rescue teams use the system to locate victims, and many manufacturers are incorporating reflectors into products such as RECCO jackets, pants, and even RECCO boots.
If you’re wondering exactly what RECCO is and what it does, you should first know what it’s not: RECCO is in no way a substitute for an avalanche beacon, nor does it provide any guarantee of safety in the backcountry. Carrying and knowing how to use avalanche rescue gear are absolutely mandatory for backcountry skiing and riding.
You’ve likely seen the RECCO logos and reflectors on various winter sports outerwear and hardgood products. These little reflectors are usually 2 inches long by 1/2 inch wide by 1/16 inch thick and consist of a pair of foil aerials connected by a diode. The unit acts as a circuit resonating at a distinct frequency and is passive—no batteries or on/off switches required. Ideally, two reflectors should be worn on opposing sides of the body.
A detector unit makes up the other part of the RECCO system. A detector emits a highly directional signal and registers harmonic radar signals when it “hits” a reflector. The most recent iteration unveiled in 2009, the R9, is small enough for handheld use or can be mounted on a helicopter. The R9 also simultaneously searches at the standard 457kHz frequency used by avalanche beacons. RECCO search methods include a grid pattern similar to that of a standard beacon protocol.
Liquid water absorbs the RECCO signal, so wet snow reduces the system’s effective range. Due to the large size and high costs of detectors, the RECCO system remains a tool for use by organized rescue teams as a complement to traditional methods such as transceiver searches, rescue dogs, and probe lines. Accordingly, the system’s efficacy is limited to such teams’ response time and distance from the burial sight. Traditionally, the system has proven more effective for resort-rescue situations than for more remote backcountry rescues.
While avalanche gear and knowledge remain essential to backcountry travel, the RECCO system clearly provides another time saving tool for avalanche rescue teams. And time is life in burial situations. We’re looking forward to what RECCO will be cooking up in the next 30 years and beyond.
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Tags: avalanche safety, resorts, skiing, technology
