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Oplopanax Horridus

Oplopanax Horridus

A veteran SAR volunteer's experiences in British Columbia

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Category: Blog Entry

Regular blog posts

The UBC VOC and Group Sizes

By Michael Coyle Posted on 11/01/2011 Posted in Blog Entry Tagged with backcountry, opinion, rant
The UBC VOC and Group Sizes
"plucked" and polished granite cliffs

This post is a bit of a rant, so please skip it if you’re not in the mood. A few years ago a friend and I travelled into the Cerise Creek area for some mountaineering. We were surprised to see …

The UBC VOC and Group Sizes Read more »

BCA Tracker 2 firmware problem

By Michael Coyle Posted on 10/01/2011 Posted in Blog Entry Tagged with gear, news, recall

Some versions of the Backcountry Access Tracker 2 have a firmware bug that causes them to go into a programming mode in certain circumstances. http://backcountryaccess.com/blog/?p=2718 Being a software engineer, I understand all to well problems with writing software and getting it …

BCA Tracker 2 firmware problem Read more »

Accidents in Incidents: A review of SAR-related injuries

By Michael Coyle Posted on 07/01/2011 Posted in Blog Entry Tagged with accident, InfoSAR, SAR
Accidents in Incidents: A review of SAR-related injuries

A review of the review of SAR related incidents.

GoPro Hero, first impressions

By Michael Coyle Posted on 06/01/2011 Posted in Blog Entry Tagged with gear, HETS, review, ski, snow, technology, video

I got a GoPro Hero camera for Christmas. I figure since I do some exciting things on occasion I may as well record some of them. I have a few friends who’ve bought this camera, and almost everyone has seen …

GoPro Hero, first impressions Read more »

On ski widths

By Michael Coyle Posted on 05/01/2011 Posted in Blog Entry Tagged with backcountry, gear, opinion, ski, snow, snowshoe

Some musings on ski widths

Safe places to Snowshoe

By Michael Coyle Posted on 04/01/2011 Posted in Blog Entry Tagged with free, opinion, snow, snowshoe
Safe places to Snowshoe

I see by my server logs that some people visiting the blog are searching for a safe place to snowshoe. With all the injury, death and general mayhem that I usually blog about I thought I’d give a few suggestions. …

Safe places to Snowshoe Read more »

My First Search

By Michael Coyle Posted on 03/01/2011 Posted in Blog Entry Tagged with backcountry, helicopter, rescue, SAR, search
My First Search

On July 17th 1999 I participated in my first SAR Search. I’d volunteered for the team in the fall of the previous year, and had been formally accepted as a member-in-training in January, 1999. The cohort of 10 new members …

My First Search Read more »

Snow Immersion Deaths redux

By Michael Coyle Posted on 30/12/2010 Posted in Blog Entry Tagged with accident, safety, SAR, snow
Snow Immersion Deaths redux

Snow Immersion Deaths

Frequency of SAR Incidents

By Michael Coyle Posted on 19/12/2010 Posted in Blog Entry, Essay Tagged with InfoSAR, numbers, SAR, statistics, technology
Frequency of SAR Incidents
SAR Incidents by Week and Type (2003 to 2010)

I analysed some numbers on SAR Incidents in British Columbia and made a few graphs showing how the frequency of incidents changes with the season.

Distribution of SAR Incidents in BC

By Michael Coyle Posted on 17/12/2010 Posted in Blog Entry, Essay Tagged with InfoSAR, numbers, SAR
Distribution of SAR Incidents in BC

The distribution of SAR tasks in British Columbia

Posts pagination

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