My son and grandson love to snow board. At times I am concerned for their safety because of the weekly news reports out of the Serria's that another skier or snowboarder is lost.
Last night my Son was telling me about his squared away snow boarding buddy. His friend has a couple of Motorola GMRS/FRS radios. He has them pre-set on channel 9 tone 11(911). This channel and tone are being used by ski patrols for search and rescue at the Serria Ski and snow boarding resorts. For those that do not know, snowboarding has saved a number of ski areas from economic failure. Even staying within bounds one can get hurt real fast. Some of the boarding areas are groomed. Others are not groomed and allow the boarder to pioneer
I am sure that many of you have dropped into a void when out in timber country in deep snow. Last week Son and friends rode the lift to the top of the mountain and started pioneering downslope. When crossing a slump in the snow he went over backwards and broke into a void. He found himself hanging upside down looking at water flowing under the snow. The depth of the void was more then his height. He was hanging by his snowboard. While pulling himself up to undo his bindings he could hear a member of his party calling her husband on her radio, advising that Son had dropped into a hole.
After pulling himself up to release the snowboard binding he was able to get out of the hole with an assisting hand from her. He told me the group uses another pre-selected channel and tone while out boarding for group communications.
His friend is now looking at the Garmin 520/530 radio's. I think they are great radios. But to take advantage of them you need more then one.
Does anybody know of any other commonly used channels for S&R or other activities.
I should note they also carry cellphones. Two weeks ago I was able to talk to my grandson and son on the slopes using our cellphones. The was while I was in my warm living room.
