Thanks for all the replies. The more I read (here and elsewhere on the web), the more I'm seeing that avalanche avoidance is much more important than how skillfully you and your partners can use beacons. Specifically, note all the experience and avalanche beacons mentioned in this article about recent avalanche deaths:
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld ... 6304.story
One victim's position was found in 6 min. and he was uncovered in 4 more min., but it was still too late.
The most sobering thing I read was written 10 years ago, noting that avalanche training tends to INCREASE one's risk of being caught in an avalanche:
http://angeles.sierraclub.org/skimt/text/avyrisk.htm
A quote from that article: "We have known for many years that the more avalanche courses a person has taken, the more likely they are to be caught in and possibly killed by an avalanche. In the early 1980's, Ray Smutek wrote a groundbreaking article called "Experience and the Perception of Avalanche Hazard" in which he addressed the problem of why experienced leaders seem to be more likely to get caught in avalanches. His contention was that, due to subtle subconscious conditioning over time of avalanches not happening (an educational process called negative event feedback), experienced leaders became less able to perceive terrain hazards over time. There was a tendency for them to gradually let down their guard until they were unfortunately caught by "The big one." Therefore, he proposed that avalanche courses be altered to include better training on the perception of terrain hazards. His article was important, not only because it pointed out a disturbing problem with experienced leaders getting caught in avalanches but also because it acknowledged that there was a serious problem with "traditional" avalanche training. "
The author explained that most courses emphasize operation of beacons too much, and fail to convey just how difficult recovery of a victim in time out in the real world can be, due to bad weather, glare ice left by the avalanche, panic, and rock-hard compaction of the snow.
I believe this article still speaks a lot of truth, even though it was written 10 years ago.
-baldyskier