AVALANCHES aren鈥檛 exactly stealthy, but they can still catch intrepid skiers unaware. Thanks to a networked airbag system, though, friends will now be able to come to the rescue.
Avalanche airbag systems (ABS) have become a common piece of kit for off-piste skiers. The two airbags, stowed in a backpack, inflate at the pull of a cord, adding volume to the skier and increasing their chances of staying close to the surface during an avalanche. The trouble is that some skiers fail to deploy their ABS, says Bernhard Budaker of the in Stuttgart, Germany.
So Budaker has adapted the to allow groups of airbags to be wirelessly networked so that if one is deployed, they are all activated. These new ABSs are paired simply by touching the rip cords together and can be set so that only one person, for example, the group leader, is able to deploy them. The device is now available to buy.
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It鈥檚 a great idea, says avalanche forecaster . These airbags really do work, he says, 鈥渂ut for some reason in a small number of cases, people wearing them don鈥檛 activate them鈥�.
