Follow Your Signal

Avoid superfluous talk or shouting, but when you see or find a visual clue, and/or get a regular signal on your transceiver, yell to the team and let them know. Physical clues should be pulled out of the snow and left on the surface. The first rescuer to receive a regular signal should put a marker in the snow to indicate where the signal search began. Once a rescuer is following a transceiver signal, they should yell for others to assemble shovels and a probe.

Move quickly, holding your transceiver in a fixed orientation and turning your body to keep the transceiver’s arrow indicators in the center. Move so that the distance units decrease. If they increase, turn 180 degrees and then move, keeping the arrows in the center. Keep moving quickly until the display units reach 10. Under 10, slow down and orient yourself by visualizing your incoming path and thus where you are heading. Depending on the victim's orientation, this path may be an arcing curve or a straight line.

When the display units drop below 5, step out of your equipment or leave a marker on the ground, in line with your final trajectory, as a physical marker that points towards the victim's location. From this point, crawl or squat so your transceiver is as close to the snow surface as possible. If resources allow for someone to probe ahead of the transceiver search, the rescuer with the transceiver should direct the rescuer probing. The searcher’s transceiver should remain along the snow surface and oriented in the same direction for the remainder of the search. Rotating it will change the distance readings and confuse the search.