Avalung Works?

[b-rock]

Here's a link to an article with an Avalung success story.

http://www.couloirmag.com/articles/news/avalung_saves.asp

I had never heard of a real burial where this thing worked, but apparently in this case it did. Hmmm.

[russ]

Pretty amazing story - I doubt there is any debate left in his mind over whether an Avalung is worth the trouble.

[moron]

He had the good fortune to see it coming and the quick thinking to stick the thing in his mouth. We'll probably never know the answer to this but I wonder how many people have that reflexive reaction, rather than focusing on outrunning it or swimming.

[b-rock]

Moron - My concern exactly. How 'bout a combo avalung / snorkle for those deep deep powder days? Then you can breath on the way down and you've got it in place if you get buried.

[snowman]

I've used the avalung many times.I put the mouth piece in if I'm crossing a suspect slope, that way I can then swim or outrun also.

[b-rock]

Snowman - can you breathe through it normally?

[erik]

I WOULD TEND TO THINK THAT THE AVALUNG WOULD WORK ONLY IN A LIGHTER SNOW PACK....

WHERES AS THE YOU GET BURIED IN CASCADE CONCRETE THE AIR POCKETS WOULD SEEM SMALLER AS THE SNOW IS GENERALLY HEAVIER AND WOULD COMPACT MORE....

I DUNNO THOUGH WHAT DOES EVERYONE ELSE THINK....

[moron]

Snowman-good answer-ditto b-rocks followup.

[cj001f]

quote:

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Originally posted by erik:

I WOULD TEND TO THINK THAT THE AVALUNG WOULD WORK ONLY IN A LIGHTER SNOW PACK....

WHERES AS THE YOU GET BURIED IN CASCADE CONCRETE THE AIR POCKETS WOULD SEEM SMALLER AS THE SNOW IS GENERALLY HEAVIER AND WOULD COMPACT MORE....

I DUNNO THOUGH WHAT DOES EVERYONE ELSE THINK....

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According to the Avalung's website, your right, but for a different reason - namely "In very dense snow and/or deep burial or high compression forces, it is possible that a buried victim will have so much weight on him tha he will not be able to move his chest to creat any respiratory movement. The statistical average burial depth is about 1 meter. The Avalung has been succesfully tested to this depth in simulations."

Going back to the debris density question - they did due tests with differing snow densities - but I'm not sure what their numbers refer to. According to the Avlanche Handbook Dry avalanches are about 300-400kg/m3 while wet avalanches are about 500-600kg/m3 - a 50% increase but I'm not sure how this would effect the Avalung.

Carl

[JRCO]

Has any on this board actually used an Avalung? Did it make you feel more secure? How was it with a pack on? From what I have seen you can get those things dirt cheap. Must not have sold to well.

[cj001f]

quote:

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Originally posted by JRCO:

Has any on this board actually used an Avalung? Did it make you feel more secure? How was it with a pack on? From what I have seen you can get those things dirt cheap. Must not have sold to well.

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Never used it on a skislope - tried it on, not too bad with a pack. Didn't want to spend 100 bones. This was the Avalung 2 however, which is a bandolier style replacement for the Avalung 1, which was the big Vest that's selling for like 1/2 off everywhere now.

Carl

[AlpineK]

While the avalung may work you shouldn't rely on individual stories. I would be interested to see a study done on the effectiveness of the avalung.

Until then the thing is too funky for me to shell out the money for.

[b-rock]

AlpineK - I think the studies have been done, at least by Avalung for what that's worth. They note it has been proven in 'supervised burials'. Not sure how they went about that (tossing snow on someone with a shovel would be a bit different than the concrete that forms around you.

Carl - From what I've heard, even in very wet avalanche debris, there's plenty of air content. The concern about being able to move your lungs in and out seems valid. But the whole idea of the avalung is simply to move the CO2 that is exhaled away from the intake area. Besides trauma, most complete buriel victems die from asphycsiation (sp).

[cj001f]

quote:

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Originally posted by b-rock:Carl - From what I've heard, even in very wet avalanche debris, there's plenty of air content. The concern about being able to move your lungs in and out seems valid. But the whole idea of the avalung is simply to move the CO2 that is exhaled away from the intake area. Besides trauma, most complete buriel victems die from asphycsiation (sp).[/QB]

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I've been lead to believe, if my Avy seminar memory is correct, that their is enough air content to breather. And AlpineK - if you check out the Avalung.com site, and read German(I dont') they may have some good info.