Colorado newspaper - the Ouray Herald (November 13) - when the editor repeated the suggestion that miners in the San Juan Mountains adopt "snowslide ribbons" to safeguard their travels to and from the mines. The principle is simple. An approximately 15 metre long red cord (similar to parachute cord) is attached to the belt of the person to be protected. While they are skiing, snowboarding, or walking, the cord is dragged along behind them. The intent is, that if the person gets buried in an avalanche, the light cord stays on top of the snow. Due to the colour the cord would be easily visible for companions. Commercial avalanche cords have metal markings every one to three metres indicating the direction and length to the victim. Avalanche cords were popular before beacons became available, and while cords were thought to be effective markers there was never any proof of their effectiveness. In the 1970s Melchior Schild of the Swiss Federal Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research (SLF) reviewed 30 years of Swiss avalanche accidents and rescues from 1944/45 to 1973/74. Of the 2042 avalanche victims he found only seven cases where avalanche cords were used (not including the 2 mentioned above). In five cases part of the cord was visible on the surface but so too was part of a victim. In the sixth case the victim was completely buried, but part of the cord was visible; this victim died of trauma. In the seventh case the completely buried avalanche cord was located by an avalanche rescue dog, however, the cord had become detached from the victim, and her body was found much later. In Knox Williams' and Betsy Armstrong's 1986 ‘’The Avalanche Book’’, they cite an early 1970s study, in which avalanche cords were tested on sandbag dummies. The dummies were placed onto steep slopes where explosives were used to trigger avalanches. Trials showed a portion of the cord remained on the surface only 40% of the time. The other 60% of the time the cord was completely buried along with the dummy. Typically the cord had spooled around the dummy. In 1975, at a symposium of avalanche rescue experts hosted by the International Foundation Vanni Eigenmann, Schild concluded, “On the basis of these results the avalanche cord can no longer be considered reliable.” In the United States there have been two accidents with five buried victims, all wearing