Handling During Avalanche Incident; Activation; Handling Yourself During The Avalanche; After The Avalanche - ABS s.cape Bedienungsanleitung

5. HANDLING DURING AVALANCHE INCIDENT

5.1 ACTIVATION

Activate the ABS Avalanche Airbag without hesitation
as soon as you become aware of an avalanche. It is
better to activate once too often than not at all. In
order to activate pull hard and fast on the activation
handle and try to escape. The airbags are self inflating,
independent of whether you are skiing, are falling, are
lying on top of the airbag or are already captured by
the moving snow. The inflated airbags will not compro-
mise your possible escape or avoidance of rocks etc.,
which you should always try to do.

5.2 HANDLING YOURSELF DURING THE AVALANCHE

Once you have activated, only concentrate on your
fall line. The way that the airbags are attached on the
sides of the pack allows you to freely move your arms.
Fight by swimming and pushing away obstacles. Try
to steady yourself and protect your head. The shape
of the airbags will help to protect your head without
compromising your movements and ability to see. Try
to twist out of your ski bindings. Never put your hands
through the pole straps and never use safety straps
with your bindings. If possible keep your mouth closed.
When the avalanche is coming to a halt, try to keep
your upper body and arms above the snow and free
yourself from the avalanche as soon as possible.
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5.3 AFTER THE AVALANCHE

Find a safe place. Try to help other victims if possible.
Only deflate the airbags when there is absolute certain-
ty that there is no longer any danger of avalanches and
attach another cartridge and activation handle imme-
diately if possible. In case you are still in an avalanche
prone area, leave the airbags inflated.
5.4 INT. AVALANCHE ACCIDENT DATABASE
Please report any practical use of your ABS avalanche
airbag. The findings of all examples of practical use
across the globe are collected by the Österreichisches
Kuratorium für Alpine Sicherheit (Austrian Alpine
Safety Board) and are very important for research and
development. You can find all the key information on
our website (under www.abs-airbag.com/en/avalanche-
accident/). Please fill out the online form in full and
also send the information regarding your avalanche
accident to your ABS Service Center when you send
your backpack for inspection.

6. HOW IT WORKS

With the ABS Avalanche Airbag you have purchased a
device based on many years of experience in avalanche
research, rescue and statistics. Led by the one out-
standing fact, that a predominant number of all avalan-
che victims (skiers and snowboarders) are still alive
when the avalanche comes to a halt. However, most
of them are buried, are unable to free themselves and
are often not visible to the rescuer. And this is where
the race with death begins and is lost by those victims,
who are totally buried and have blocked airways.