Beacon Practice Areas List

Thought I would start a thread for this since there were few threads this year - all of the ones I have found have been sponsered by BCA

If anyone has updates to these, please post and i will update this post accordingly

2006-2007 is here, help keep this updated and post when your Beacon Basin opens!

Closed or Not Open Yet for 05/06
Open for 05/06
Complications - Does it exist, where is it, when does it open??


UTAH
Snowbird - Link- See Post #20
The Canyons - Link
Woodlands (Uintah's!, targeted at sledders) - Link

COLORADO
Breck - Link (north of the Vista Haus on Peak 8, near the top of the Colorado SuperChair lift) - see posts below
Loveland Basin??
Vail - the top of the Sundown bowl lift

WYOMING
Jackson Hole Mountain Resort (base of Rendezvous Bowl) See Post #35
Teton Pass (Phillips Ridge - unconfirmed exact location) See post #7,#24

CALIFORNIA
Kirkwood, CA (located adjacent to the east end of the Plaza)
Squaw Valley, CA ??

WASHINGTON

Crystal Mountain, WA (Campbell Basin Lodge) - see post #37
Stevens Pass, WA (accesible from the base area. No ticket required up the hill by the Tube City yurt) - no '06 update see post #37
Alpental, Washington - not for sure yet, see post #40

MONTANTA
Bridger Bowl, MT

BC
Red Resort (100m from the base area) - see post #39
Whistler / Blackcomb, BC - see post #29
Whitewater, BC
Kokanee Glacier National Park, BC
Revelstoke, BC ??
Fernie B.C. - open for 05/06 - see post #28

AB
Canmore, AB ??

AK
Eaglecrest - Juneau, AK - next year possibly


Depending on the site, a Beacon Basin features 6 to 14 permanently buried transmitters wired to a central control panel. The panel consists of up to 14 switches for turning the transmitters on and off, plus a remote power supply consisting of 6 alkaline D cells. These sites are hosted by local avalanche professionals and managed by BCA technical representatives. To organize a transceiver training day at the Beacon Basin in your area, contact BCA at (303)417-1345 or steve@bcaccess.com.

EDIT: Dont forget to bring your own batteries just in case! 6 D cells!

this is kept updated list per suggestions below

Beacon Basin Field Instructions <-- link to PDF, here is text version for you peeps on slow connections:

Beacon Basin Field Instructions
1. Retrieve batteries, shovel, and probe from issuing authorities.

2. Uncover the control box at Beacon Basin. It should be marked by a bamboo pole, or other object, that is easy to find. Pay attention not to hit any wires while excavating.

3. Insert 6 C batteries into control box battery panel.

4. The beacons are labeled by number. Each switch turns on a beacon. It is possible to have one or all beacons transmitting at once. We recommend a few simple practice searches involving one beacon before advancing to multiple burials.

5. When a beacon is found, pinpoint it by probing and striking the probe target above the beacon. It is unnecessary to dig up the beacon once it has been found. The searcher can choose to have the beacon turned off or continue searching for other beacons.

6. When finished searching, please log into the Beacon Basin log book. Note how many hours you or your group practiced searching and the types of search scenarios. Next, remove the batteries, close and rebury the control box, and mark it with bamboo stick or other marker.

7. Return the batteries, shovel and probe to issuing authorities. Please notify them with any concerns, for example, if transmitters can’t be found or probe targets are buried too deep.


Tips

Each beacon is buried at ground level and should have a probe target placed .25m below the surface. Do not dig up the beacons or probe target.

1. When abandoning your primary search, mark that spot with the fine search marker (wire flag).

2. Multiple burials: after pinpointing each transmitter with the probe, place a wire flag at the found beacon.

3. Once all transmitters have been pinpointed in the immediate area, and you suspect others are still buried, return to your fine search point to resume your primary search.

4. See other side for general transceiver search tips. See www.bcaccess.com for basic and advanced tutorials for those using the Tracker DTS transceiver.

good thread

FYI

It is my understanding that Stevens and Alpental do not currently have their beacon basins up and running due to a lack of snow. If it was a normal year they would.

Stevens is up the hill by the Tube City yurt.

fyi again, Arapahoe Basin CO does NOT have a "beacon basin." I wish they did, and it's something I'm mentioning to other patrollers. They have a yearly "beacon bowl", a competition + practice area where CAIC comes and helps out, instructs people, has the control box, etc, but this is only a once a year thing. No season-round beacon basin.

However, if you were to go to the patrol headquarters at the top of the mountain, a patroller could probably bury a couple of beacons for you. I do it all the time, but still I wish we could get a real, permanent beacon practice field.

Hmmm...I should email BCA and have them help out the folks at Kirkwood. The course could use improvement. The beacons are buried at ground level which is fairly deep after all this snow. This also means that the probe targets are completely useless. Still, it's nice to have.

Edit: The course is free and is located next to Monte Wolf's Cafe. The control box is under the stairs. No lift ticket required.

There's one on Teton Pass, in addition to the one at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort. I think it's on Phillips Ridge, but I'm not sure.

There are a couple things I have not been able to figure out after reading the details on BCAs website.

Is the beacon basin at the base of the ski area or do you need a lift ticket to get up to it? Do I just walk up to the basin and start using it or do I need to reserve it?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Lurch

Is the beacon basin at the base of the ski area or do you need a lift ticket to get up to it? Do I just walk up to the basin and start using it or do I need to reserve it?

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The one at Jackson Hole is at the base of Rendezvous Bowl - one tram ride, or a gondola and two chairs. Definitely a lift ticket. No reservations.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Lurch

There are a couple things I have not been able to figure out after reading the details on BCAs website.

Is the beacon basin at the base of the ski area or do you need a lift ticket to get up to it? Do I just walk up to the basin and start using it or do I need to reserve it?

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Snowbirds is just off the road too, but that wouldn't apply to you in colorado i suppose. Same with the sledhead one in the unitahs, again in utah...

updated the list at the top of the thread per your input guys, thanks! I had herd of the Teton Pass one but wasn't totaly sure about it, couldn't find anything on the net except some blurbs.

Good thread - thanks for posting. I will be hitting the Breck Beacon Basin this year a few times to practice.

The one at Stevens, when it is there, is accesible from the base area. No ticket required.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by char

The one at Stevens, when it is there, is accesible from the base area. No ticket required.

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noted in the first post now, thanks!

bump for spring. Also are any closed down for lack of snow or too much?

FYI - I could not find the one at Breck. I don't think it exists.

Also there is one at Vail at the top of the Sundown bowl lift.

top post updated

We are going to be putting something together at Eaglecrest - Juneau, AK. The Juneau Ski Patrol (NSP) is going to buy a practice transmitter set-up for next season.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Below Zero

FYI - I could not find the one at Breck. I don't think it exists.

Also there is one at Vail at the top of the Sundown bowl lift.

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It does exist at Breck - I know somebody that's been using it.

I think they took out the one at Loveland though.

Great thread...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by SheRa

It does exist at Breck - I know somebody that's been using it.

I think they took out the one at Loveland though.

Great thread...

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Where is it, Mir? The article says it is at the top of the Colorado Superchair, but I could not find it. Is it at that location?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Below Zero

Where is it, Mir? The article says it is at the top of the Colorado Superchair, but I could not find it. Is it at that location?

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http://www.telemarktalk.com/phpBB/vi...438&highlight=

You can add Fernie B.C. to the list. The beacon basin ran from Jan to Apr 05 and is located skiers' right on Giggly Gully run.

bump. Should have enough snow for these soon, post your updates here and I'll update the first post

RE: Teton Pass basin...
The other night (12/8), Rod Newcomb mentioned that only 8 of the 10 beacons are working...so if you're searching for 10, you won't find 'em.

-e

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jonpierre

I was told the one at Loveland was never setup because of lack of snow?

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What? who told you that one? :confused:

The beacon basin at Fernie Alpine Resort has not been put in yet this season and will likely not be on Giggly Gully. We will be putting it in soon, location to be determined. I will keep you posted on where it ends up.

thanks all, updated 1st post

The beacon basin at Fernie Alpine Resort will be operational as of tomorrow, skier's left of Heartland above the Timber weather study plot.
Referring to the Tips we noticed one thing you have to watch for when locating your probe targets above the beacons, and that's snow creep. This year we have made our targets to resemble a mortarboard made of plywood and strapped the beacons to the underside so that the beacons will go where the target does.

Rumor has it there will be beacon basins operating on both Whistler and Blackcomb at some point during this season.

snowbirds basin is now open according to UAC

Quote:

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It’s sponsored by Wasatch Backcountry Rescue and Snowbird and located just off the bypass road in upper Little Cottonwood Canyon.

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Not too sure about this winter but in the past there has been a BCA sponsored beacon basin at Mt Norquay just outside of banff.

or at least a transmitting beacon for patrol to practice with.
ask a ski patroller, they can tell you the general area.

As of right now there is no beacon park at The Canyons ski resort in Utah. I talked to them about it 2 days ago(when I wanted to go use it) and they said that the effort last year at the canyons and snowbird was paid for with tax payer dollars. They said that those dollars were significantly cut and that it is underfunded this year and that they likely wont have a beacon park at all this year and that Snowbird will probably be the only resort in utah with one unless a non-profit org wants to step up and provide the funding or resources to do it.

soooo beyond purchasing the equipment (already done? right?!?), and setup, what the hell other costs are there? It's bring your own batteries...

wtf? Is this something we could pickup? if there is a demonstrated need? Can't be that fucking hard, bury the transmitters and such, hang a sign, put up some boundry markers?

Beacon Basin at JHMR is up and running....Just in time for beacon drills with the groms today. Too bad its gonna snow too much to take them OB tomorrow. :wink:

Well, I checked out the Beacon basin at Fernie the other day. Its pretty easy to operate. Best advice is to check in at the Timber Patrol hut at the top of the White Pass Chair is see if the tackle box (control box) and batteries are at the basin. The Basin is located just above the snow plot on Heartland which is just above the 100 % cat track. When using the basin its also a good idea to go turn on the basin and select a problem and then go back up the White Pass chair and start your search as the control box is at the bottom of the search area. This basin also has alot of snow, so if you go off your skis expect to skin down to your waist in snow. This allows a person to really try out there probing skills as the beacons will be at least under a meter of snow. I find that the beacon basin is great for practicing as its harder than just practicing in the back yard or parking lot. One has pin point the beacons, probe, strike and then dig thur a considerable amount of snow to find the plywood that the beacons are located underneath.

Here is a picture of the control box and plywood cover box for the beacon basin at Fernie

http://www.biglines.com/photos/norma...ines_49825.jpg

^^^

Crystal Mountain, WA
Hone your transceiver skills with our new Easy Searcher Practice system. Located at the Campbell Basin Lodge, the Easy Searcher has multiple "victims" and three levels of difficulty. The system is free and always open. Check with ski patrol for questions.

Other sites:
Alpental - not operational yet
Stevens - no update on status

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Squirrel99

^^^

Crystal Mountain, WA
Hone your transceiver skills with our new Easy Searcher Practice system. Located at the Campbell Basin Lodge, the Easy Searcher has multiple "victims" and three levels of difficulty. The system is free and always open. Check with ski patrol for questions.

Other sites:
Alpental - not operational yet
Stevens - no update on status

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BCA are going to have the practice array at Alpental set up within the next week or so.

Red Resort now has one operational. It is located about 100m from the base area and is accessible on foot. Drop in at the dispatch office at the base to pick up the control box.

Thanks to Backcountry Access, Couloir Magazine, Red Resort and Rossland & District SAR.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by PNWbrit

BCA are going to have the practice array at Alpental set up within the next week or so.

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Alpental should be up & running now. Patrol mentioned it was to go active as of Wednesday. The location was to far skier's right boundary line near the lodge/quad or possibly near the Snow Lake trailhead. I'll find out this weekend and update.

thanks for the updates. Sweet post rossi, somehow I missed those last month.

post #1 updated. Whistler / blackcomb beacon basins up? How about colorado?