When I was an alpine Ski Patroller here in Nevada we were required to have passed an Avalanche 1 course AND practiced both line pole probing plus locating and PROPERLY digging out buried “avy” beacons . This means digging in a rotating “conveyor” technique. Rotating because digging at the apex of the site is more tiring than scoping away their dug snow.
We also had to have collapsable shovels, snow study kits and our own collapsable probe poles and know how to use all of them.
This year (Jan. 2023) an avalanche killed a backcountry skier here in Las Vegas’ Spring Mountains despite having his avy beacon on and being located and dug our fairly quickly. In addition to all the other avy gear I wear my AVALUNG in avalanche prone areas. It can give you life-saving extra 45 minutes of breathing time before an ice mask forms.
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