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Search-and-rescue responders have powerful new ways of recovering from trauma.

Utah transplant Edward Power is the author of "Dragons in the Snow: Avalanche Detectives and the Race to beat Death in the Mountains." He used as a focal point a January 2017 "storm dragon" that began in the Gulf of Alaska and picked up steam until it reached Utah and dumped 5 feet of fresh snow in the Wasatch and the Uintas.

If you’ve spent $500 on the fanciest avalanche transceiver in existence but you don’t know how to use it, it’s not going to do you much good. In the event of a slide, that little beeping box is your lifeline—the only form of communication between you and your potential rescuers when you’re separated by layers of snow. Also known as a beacon, a transceiver is just one part of a complete avalanche safety kit, which should also include, at the minimum, a probe and shovel. Another essential component of avalanche safety is education, which we will discuss in more detail below. A course ...

That’s how many it takes to power a Backcountry Access beacon training park. Lynne Wolfe is keenly familiar with that number. On Jan. 16 the Yostmark Backcountry Tours ski guide grabbed anyone within arm’s reach to help her stuff the bevy of batteries into eight transceivers for a new beacon search training park at the Coal Creek trailhead, the second to be installed in the Teton region this winter. The park consists of a control panel and eight transceivers that are buried in the snow. The control box contains switches that turn the transceivers on and off, allowing people to creat...