On a cold December Friday night six club members met Brendan at Glenmore Lodge with our transceivers, head torches and lots of clothes.

We had a fun and very informative evening in the transceiver park practising finding a mystery number of buried transceivers. A single burial was quite easy, but increasing numbers of multiple burials became progressively more challenging, 3 and 4 casualties being very tricky with transceivers jumping between signals.

When we were all cold enough we headed to the bar for hot chocolates and beers and a good discussion on avalanche forecasts and avoidance.

Some of the take homes were:

  • Read your transceiver manual at the start of the season.
  • Practice turning off your mobile phone (to avoid interference when searching)…this took me several minutes!
  • The best chance of saving your pals is in the first 15 minutes after burial, so best be slick with your search technique.

Many thanks to Brendan for an excellent, fun and informative evening. Here’s hoping none of us ever have to use our transceivers for real.