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Show Introduction Avalanche rescue operations bring together diversified types of people. Skiers, Forest Rangers and law enforcement officers may be asked to work together. Highway maintenance crews and helicopter pilots may cooperate. Snow Safety Guide No. 1 has been compiled as a common standard of reference for these varied personnel so that efficient and competent rescue operations will result from their coordinated efforts. The reader's familiarity with the fundamentals of avalanche and avalanche terminology is assumed. The U. S. Department of Agriculture Handbook No. 194, " Snow Avalanches" is recommended as prerequisite reading. Snow Safety Guide No. 1 amplifies and modernizes the treatment of avalanche rescue in Handbook No. 194. In the European Alps, both the skiing and non- skiing segments of the population are exposed to more extensive avalanche hazard than in the United States. The result has been a continuing evaluation of avalanche rescue techniques. A substantial part of the methodology set forth in this Guide has drawn from the extensive European experience, especially in Switzerland. Particularly useful has been the 1963 Symposium on Urgent Measures for the Rescue of Avalanche Victims sponsored at Davos, Switzerland, by the EigenmannInternational Foundation. This European experience has been combined with our own growing experience in avalanche rescue to form the basis of this present manual. The subject matter will be presented in three sections based on the sequence of rescue operations. Section I discusses preparation for the rescue and begins with pre- accident planning. A three- stage approach to rescues is introduced as the logical revision of the two- stage, Hasty Party- Main Party theme which presently dominates rescue practices in the United States. This more efficient, three- stage approach is made possible by greater availability today of proper equipment and trained personnel at avalanche- threatened areas. Section II discusses methods of locating a buried victim. Many recent ideas, some new to North American readers, are presented. All of these ideas have been tested in the Alps. The Eigenmann Symposium ( Ref. No. 11) and a publication of the Austrian Mountain Rescue Service on avalanche dogs ( Ref. No. 2) have both provided valuable material. Section III discusses current medical opinion concerning first- aid measures; the treatment and transportation of avalanche victims. |