With winter approaching and backcountry users readying for the season, the Canadian Avalanche Centre in Revelstoke warns that several smartphone apps being marketed as avalanche rescue systems are not recommended.
The apps (applications) are European-designed and began appearing during the summer months, said Karl Klassen, CAC avalanche warning service manager.
The apps in question include iSis Intelligent (Mountain) Rescue System, Snřg Avalanche Buddy and SnoWhere.
“Where they are designed is not the issue,” said Klassen, “they will work on smartphones. But we have a bunch of concerns with them. Avalanche transceivers are built to international standards, so all devices are compatible. They work through snow, trees and rocks, but the apps don’t meet international standards and most aren’t compatible with each other.”
Unlike avalanche transceivers that all conform to an international standard of operating at 457 kHz and with a similar operating system, the apps do not, meaning two people with different phones could be in the backcountry together and, if one was buried in an avalanche, the other app would be useless in finding the person.
“None of the various communication methods used by these apps come close to that standard,” said CAC Executive Director Gilles Valade. “WiFi and Bluetooth signals are significantly weakened when passing through snow and easily deflected by the solid objects we expect to see in avalanche debris. And the accuracy of a GPS signal is nowhere near the precision required for finding an avalanche victim. ”
Another issue, said Klassen, is battery life. “In a cold environment, these apps are fairly power hungry, they need a fair amount of battery power and we’re very concerned with that. Also, we’re also concerned with the robustness – how strong is a phone compared to an avalanche receiver?”
Klassen said so far, the CAC has had no complaints about the apps, but the organization is also concerned they are being marketed as a cheap alternative to purpose-built avalanche transceivers ($265 to $495 at MEC, for example).
“We’ve reviewed their claims and we don’t believe their testing is adequate,” he said. “We’ve also consulted with avalanche experts and electronics engineers who feel they are not appropriate.
“A problem is that they’re cheap, or even free, and it would be pretty tempting for the occasional backcountry skier or snowmobiler to get one. We think these European companies are targetting out of bounds skiers who tend to be younger and maybe don’t have a great comprehension of the risk involved.”
For example, the iSis website claims its app is, Cutting edge innovation destined to save lives, automatic, precise and intuitive.
