The RECCO Story

The RECCO Story

The RECCO story is a short documentary about a project that started with an avalanche accident in December 1973 and led to a global standard for avalanche rescue. Today a search and rescue system for all outdoor activities year around now exists due to this tragic incident.

Searching with ski poles

But in 1973, before any electronical aids existed, Magnus Granhed and his friends were left to search for skiers caught in an avalanche with their ski poles.

Three hours

“It felt hopeless, knowing that there were people buried underneath,” he remembers. After three hours, two victims were found, and it was confirmed that one of them was a friend of Magnus Granhed’s. “This contributed to making the experience even stronger. Here we are having fun skiing and suddenly one of us passes away.” After the accident Magnus Granhed was motivated to get more knowledge about avalanches and rescue and search technologies and quickly understood that an electronic solution could allow searches to faster locate victims buried by an avalanche. “But neither the technology or the market existed when we started.”

RECCO

The original idea with the RECCO rescue system was to find a technology to make all people searchable by professional rescue teams, with a maintenance free and cost-efficient solution. Almost fifty years later – the idea remains the same.

Check out more information about RECCO here

Arjen
was born with maps of ski areas in the cradle and has visited almost all of them. His great passion is freeriding.
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