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Adam Zimmerman, 11, followed the cues from the chirping avalanche beacon in his hands to within a few feet of a buried victim. After several minutes of probing the patch of snow, he made an announcement.

"We saved someone!"

Not so fast there, Adam. The frequently cited statistic is that avalanche victims found within 15 minutes have more than a 90 percent chance of survival, but less than 40 percent will survive after 35 minutes, according to a study of avalanche survivability in Switzerland published in the journal Nature.

"So what you say is, 'I found someone,'" said Doug Wessen, administrative director of Juneau Mountain Rescue. "You always hope for a rescue," rather than a recovery, he explained.

Wessen was volunteering Friday to teach about a dozen children how to use avalanche beacons in a new training park that opened in February on the west side of Eaglecrest Ski Area. Avalanche beacons are small electronic devices, about the size of a walkie-talkie, that can emit and track signals that other beacons put out. Adam and the other children were participating in a Discovery Day, a day camp put on by the nature education nonprofit Discovery Southeast.

The "victims" are actually briefcase-sized boxes of electronics under the snow that put out a signal for avalanche beacons to pick up. There are six in the park, all tied to a control panel where users can activate one to three at a time. A good firm poke from a snow probe should send a signal back to the control box that sets off a flashing light and horn to let searchers know they've found a buried victim.

The control box also records the time elapsed so repeat users can track their progress. The self-serve system is free and open to the public.

"Once you find them, what are you going to do? You're going to take out your probe and poke him," Wessen explained during a dry run indoors.

"That would kind of hurt," Adam said.

"Well, if you're buried in an avalanche ... it's probably going to feel good to be poked," Wessen said.

The $15,000 training system was acquired in a joint effort of Juneau Mountain Rescue, Eaglecrest Ski Patrol, South East Alaska Dog Organized Ground Search, Southeast Alaska Avalanche Center and the Juneau Snowmobile Club. It was paid for largely through a grant from the Alaska Search and Rescue Association.

The volunteers with the children's program set up the course on its toughest difficulty level so they could work in groups simultaneously searching for three beacons. Amid an out-of-sync chorus of chirps, the children fanned out and quickly found all three spots, but had trouble either piercing the layers of snow and ice or pinpointing exactly where to stick the probes to trip the sensors on the boxes. Even with help from the adults, they only managed to set off one before they needed to move on to their next activity for the day.

The panel recorded the time at 12 minutes and 8 seconds, so Adam's group really may have saved someone in a similar scenario.

The beacon park is likely to be packed up at the end of the season, but it will be back next season. The system is somewhat mobile, so rescue groups can get more mileage out of it in the meantime. For example, Dale Gosnell with Juneau Ski Patrol said it was used in an interagency search exercise on the other side of the ski area in January. Wessen said he's considering setting it up on Sandy Beach for Boy Scouts to practice.

The kids' day with Discovery Southeast at Eaglecrest included snowshoeing with naturalists, building snow shelters, alpine skiing and Nordic skiing.

• Contact reporter Jeremy Hsieh at 523-2258 or jeremy.hsieh@juneauempire.com.