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
the mountain with his beacon in receive mode to try to pick up my signal from the hole where i will wait for a rescue. our producer puts the finishing touches on my snow cave, and i wait in the dark underground. 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.
the beacon. we all 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 the mountain with his beacon in receive mode to try to pick up my signal from the hole where i will wait for a rescue. our producer puts the finishing touches on my snow cave, and i wait in the dark underground.
touches on my snow cave, and i wait in the dark underground. 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
i m in salt lake city. it s good be alive. i bet. it s my understanding that you ended up sort of boroughing into the snow right before a storm came? right. so once i broke my leg we splinted it up and tried to keep it from moving and being more painful. then matt started digging a snow shelter, a snow cave for me. then he took off to go get more help and i just kept digging. that must have been a horrible feeling with no one else there and here comes the storm. yeah. it wasn t fun. it wasn t fun at all. being in the snow shelter, at least i had some protection from the wind and from the elements. i was shivering uncontrollably the whole time and lost sensation in my feet. at least i was able to wait it out until search and rescue was able to find me. is all that weird stuff going through your head like will i ever get out of here? will they find me? oh, god, it was tough.