What it is
Noggin Rescue Radar
Who uses it
Alpine search and rescue teams
If your off-piste winter wanderings ever meet with misadventure, let's hope your rescuers are equipped with ground-penetrating radar. The $25,000 Noggin can locate solid objects — like hapless skiers — under as much as 50 feet of snow. By comparing radar scans taken tens or hundreds of times a second, it can even detect tiny movements to quickly distinguish living victims from trees and boulders swept up in an avalanche. The manufacturer, Sensors and Software, also sells Noggins for scientific surveys and for finding buried pipes and utilities. Those units come with extras like GPS and Google Maps, which might one day show up on the rescue devices. But for now, consider this an upgrade to the shaggy St. Bernard — miniature brandy keg not included.
