Why a transceiver, probe and shovel are mandatory on every tour, how the four-phase companion search works, and what the first 15 minutes decide.
Do you really need a transceiver, probe and shovel for every tour — even the short, familiar local loop? Honest answer: yes, without exception. Sounds like overkill, but it's physics: if an avalanche buries you, every minute counts, and without these three tools your touring partner has little realistic chance of finding you in time.
The numbers behind this are brutally clear. In the first minutes after being buried, the survival chance sits above 90 percent — almost a guarantee. After 15 minutes that flips: the oxygen in the small air pocket in front of your face is usually used up by then, and the survival curve drops sharply. The second big drop comes after roughly two hours, once your core body temperature has dropped so far that circulation collapses. Mountain rescue often needs considerably longer than 15 minutes to reach high alpine terrain — which is why you and your touring partner are the only realistic rescue chain in that critical first quarter hour.
That's exactly why this gear isn't an optional extra but the core of what separates ski touring from piste skiing: you carry responsibility for your partner, not a ski patrol.
The device belongs directly on your body under your jacket in a dedicated harness — never in your backpack. If the backpack gets ripped off in the avalanche (which happens regularly), the device stays with you. Switch it on before every tour and check the battery level.
The search runs through four phases: signal search (rough location of the first signal), coarse search (bringing the device into reception range), fine search (cross-bearing to narrow the exact position), and pinpoint search (probing to find the exact burial depth). Depending on the device, position and burial depth, maximum range is 20 to 60 meters — which is why a systematic search-strip width matters, not running around randomly.
After the fine search, you probe systematically in a spiral pattern around the assumed point until you hit resistance. Only then do you know the exact depth — and only then do you know where to start digging.
Don't start digging directly above the probe strike, but roughly 1.5 times the burial depth downhill, and dig a V-shaped channel toward the buried person. That way you move snow efficiently instead of just shifting it around.
A transceiver you use for the first time in a real emergency is a risk. Practice fields with buried transmitters simulate real time pressure — and that pressure is exactly what matters once the survival curve drops after 15 minutes.
Transceiver, probe and shovel are companion-rescue gear — they don't replace organized mountain rescue, but they bridge the critical first minutes when a rescue helicopter simply cannot arrive in time. Even though falls are overall more common than avalanches among Alpine Club members, avalanches remain the deadliest danger in open terrain: in the 2023/24 season, 369 people were involved in avalanche accidents, and 14 people died. Carry your emergency gear without exception, even on the "safe" standard route.
Make transceiver training a fixed start-of-season ritual — not a once-in-a-lifetime thing, but every single year, ideally with your regular touring partner. Searching under real time pressure feels completely different than in your living room, and that feeling is exactly what you need when it truly counts.
No. Avalanches don't distinguish between familiar and unfamiliar routes — standard routes are often dangerous precisely because many tracks add extra load to the slope. Emergency gear belongs in your kit without exception.
Survival chances sit above 90 percent in the first minutes but drop sharply after 15 minutes, once oxygen in the air pocket runs low. That's your real time window for companion rescue.
No. The transceiver only gets you close — without a probe you won't find the exact depth, without a shovel you can't dig through to the buried person. All three belong together.
Several times per season, ideally on an organized practice field with real time pressure. A device you own but have never operated under stress won't help much in a real emergency.
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