Soon after I got back from my Eiseman Hut trip, there was an article in our local paper The Gazette about avalanche safety. One of the things it talked about was that avalanche deaths have increased since avalanche beacon use has become more common. I use the Ortovox F1 Focus Avalanche Beacon.
The chances of surviving an avalanche even when wearing a beacon is only 50%. One of the guys that was on the hut trip was on a guided trip in Canada when a slide occurred and when of their group was caught in it. If I remember correctly, they could see the jacket of the guy on the surface but had been killed by being slammed into a tree. The article said there should be more focus on avoiding avalanches than on learning how to use a beacon.
When I ride on the road, I worry about being hit by a car. I avoid some of the worst sections of road but I still ride roads with narrow or no shoulders with lots of traffic. As I ramp up my miles for RAAM, I’ll be on the roads a lot more. In fact over the next 3 days I plan to get in 20 hours of riding.
I wear my id wrist band from www.RoadID.com whenever I ride in case something happens but I hope it’s never needed. I used to only wear it on long rides. One day I was finishing a lunch ride and was less than a mile from work on a street when I saw a cyclist down from being hit by a car. Since then I’ve tried making sure I always have it on. I have a friend was riding along and apparently crashed and was taken to the ER but he doesn’t remember it.
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