Avalanche Beacon

So to start off I am 23 years old. I was born with WPW and have had a pacemaker since I was four. Two summers ago I also found out that I had an enlarged heart and extremely low Ejection Fraction. Anyway I felt like sharing a very funny story that happened to me this winter.---- My brother and I are extremely into snowboarding, I have been riding since i was 9, and my dream has always been to be able to hike up the Mountain and ride the fresh powder. However, in order to be able to do this one must need an avalanche Beacon and a transceiver. This christmas my brother and I received both of these. Being excited and pumped up about this we went outside to go test them. We first planted one transceiver in the snow and used the other one to "look" for it, it worked out fine because we knew where it was. Then we each took one and walked a fair distance apart. The panic began here when my brothers transceiver would read 90 feet out and mine would only read 20 ft. I immediately assumed that it was because of my pacemaker interfering and became furious! I was not going to let my pacemaker stop me from pursuing my dream! So we started doing research online and weren't finding any conclusive evidence. Some websites said it could some said no, so by this point i was very down.. The next day we thought maybe it was the batteries so we tried new batteries, and Low and Behold IT WAS THE BATTERIES!! So two weeks ago I pursued my dream and hiked four chutes over the Mountain (MoonLight Basin, Big Sky MT) and rode that fine fresh powder, and 3 more times that day! I just thought there might be some people on here who would enjoy this story! Moral is, while you may always assume something is caused by your pacemaker it may not always be the case!

4 Comments

Glad you waited

by jeanlancour - 2013-03-22 01:03:21

to have your Beacon and transceiver. Have a ball and don't take to many chanches, I grew up in the mountains of Mt. Jean

Shred the White Gnar

by ebfox - 2013-03-22 07:03:17

I am glad to hear you cutting up the powder, PM and all. Waist deep is about right-

EB

Avalanche Tranceivers

by bbruce - 2015-11-07 05:11:54

I have backcountry skied for a number of years and have always worn an avalanche Tranceivers. I have had a pacemaker for 3 years and did some research into using tranceivers with pacemakers.

Everything I seem to read says to keep your tranceiver on the right side of your body. Black Diamond makes a pair of ski / boarding pants with a dedicated tranceiver pocket on the right thigh. The pocket even includes a padded sheath to protect the tranceiver.

The only issue with this is that it is better to have the tranceiver on the core of the body for search purposes. It is especially important if you you are wearing a Mammut Barryvox Pulse tranceiver that can detect chest movement and sends this info to searchers using the same tranceiver. If they don't get a signal of movement (because the tranceiver is on your leg) they could assume you are already dead and might move onto the next buried victim. That being said, if the searchers aren't using a Pulse, or if you are the only one buried, they will likely dig you out.

I personally have modified my harness so me tranceiver is on the right side of my body, at least 24 inches from my pacemaker, just to be safe.

Here is a rather technical document sent to me by my friend who runs Avalanche Canada.

http://www.swsmtns.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Interference-Issues-Concerning-Avalanche-Rescue_Transceivers.pdf

I hope this has been a little helpful.

Beacon

by nhorner10 - 2019-12-04 16:17:51

Hoping I'm not too late to the party on this. I called Medtronic yesterday and asked them this question. They said as long as the beacon is about 6in away, the PM shouldn't be affected - however, they weren't sure if my PM would interfere with the beacon’s search/send signals. 

While it’s great to know my beacon probably isn’t going to mess with my PM, that's only half of the question. I’m a little uneasy going into the backcountry not knowing if my PM is messing with my transceiver signal. I’ve tried some tests at home with pretty much no conclusions (shocker). I’m guessing it’s probably not making much of a difference, but always worth asking the question. Has anyone had any experiences with this or read anything that can comment? I haven't been able to find much conclusive evidence one way or the other

Also, Bruce - how'd you modify your harness to sit on the right side?

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My pacemaker was installed in 1998 and I have not felt better. The mental part is the toughest.