the three essentials for back country skiers. beacon, probe, shovel. those are the three things you need to have with you. the beacon. we put on one of these and turn them out so they re transmitting. later in the day if you get buried in an avalanche i ll be able to set mine to receive, pick up your signal and locate you. reporter: the probe and shovel. this is a three-meter probe pole. what this allows me to do once i get your general location with the beacon i can pinpoint you with this probe and then use the shovel to dig down to the tip. reporter: this fourth item can keep you above the rampaging snow threatening to bury you, the air bag pack. we dug a three-foot-deep hole in the snow to simulate what an avalanche victim might be trapped. our plan, to send ethan green up
okay. so i m turning on to receive. reporter: no signal right away. but quickly got a signal. reporter: it tells him how close he s getting. 16 meters, 13 meters. reporter: the beacon works like a charm. okay. i m less than a meter. i have a strike. wow. that was quite unsettling under there. so glad your beacon worked. me, too. thanks. yeah. reporter: of course, i was always safe in my controlled environment. in real life, a victim sometimes doesn t even have a chance in a huge avalanche. it s so dense that you re not going to be able to dig yourself out. sometimes you can t even expand your lungs to breathe. reporter: but if you re alive after the snow stops moving, having the right equipment can
are transmitting. they are signaling out a signal. later in the day, if you get buried, i will be able to set mine to receive, pick up your signal and locate you. reporter: the probe and the shovel. this is a three-meter probe pole. what this allows me to do, once i get your general location with the beacon, i can pinpoint you with this probe and then use the shovel to dig down to the tip. reporter: there is this fourth item that can keep you above the rampaging snow threatening to bury you, the air bag pack. we dug a three-foot deep hole in the snow to simulate where an avalanche victim might be trapped. our plan, to send ethan green up the mountain with his beacon and receive mode to try to pick up my signal from a hole where i will wait for a rescue. our producer, chris liable, puts the finishes touching on my snow
death. it s an avalanche. he is buried about five feet under the snow, unable to move. [ yelling ] carlson is hoping the skiers he was with find him before he suffocates. and they do. he s a very lucky man. on the average in the u.s., 28 people die each year from avalanches, often with hundreds of tons of snow plummeting down the mountain. i ski at colorado s copper mountain with one of the top avalanche experts in the united states. how are the conditions? good for skiing. reporter: ethan green is the director of the colorado avalanche information center. his state agency s responsibility in part to forecast the probability of avalanches. this is mayflower gulch. reporter: he takes me away from the resort and into the back country where most avalanches occur to learn about the three essentials for back country skiers. beacon, probe, shovel.
christopher carlson, who was wearing a helmet cam, came very close to documenting his own death. it s an avalanche. he is buried about five feet under the snow, unable to move. [ yelling ] carlson is hoping the skiers he was with find him before he suffocates. and they do. he s a very lucky man. on the average in the u.s., 28 people die each year from avalanches, often with hundreds of tons of snow plummeting down the mountain. i ski at colorado s copper mountain with one of the top avalanche experts in the united states. how are the conditions? good for skiing. reporter: ethan green is the director of the colorado avalanche information center. his state agency s responsibility in part to forecast the probability of avalanches. this is mayflower gulch. reporter: he takes me away from the resort and into the back country where most avalanches occur to learn about