Category: Avalanche

OR Report: Interest in airbag packs explodes

Can the US market really support more than a dozen airbag manufacturers? That’s right, there’s thirteen I know of that plan to distribute airbag packs next season, and two more soon after. At the moment the two biggest are the originator of the avalanche airbag pack, ABS, followed by SnowPulse. ABS uses compressed nitrogen to …

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OR Report: Backcountry Access’ BC Link

  Besides being adopted by K2 Sports, what’s new at Backcountry Access? More of what you might expect, and a little of something unexpected. The Tracker3™ is the follow up to the Tracker2™, utilizing the same real-time digital processing but now with the ability to separate multiple signals and mark a beacon you have located. …

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Review: Ortovox 3+ avalanche beacon

3+ avalanche transceiver display when searching for a signal

The 3+ from Ortovox is a fresh breath of simplicity in the beacon world. It doesn’t go overboard with brainiac features, at least, not overtly. It doesn’t provide the directional clues of the S1, but it can still separate the various signals, only without getting confused like the first gen S1.

BC News: BD to buy Pieps

Pieps Vector avalanche transceiver showing Li-ion battery life

  Black Diamond Equipment, Inc., announced this morning its intent to acquire Pieps, a leader in avalanche rescue transceivers in early October, 2012. The acquisition fulfills a decade-long goal to add avalanche transceivers to the palette of products Black Diamond offers for backcountry safety. Over the years there has been much speculation as to whether …

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Review: BD’s Outlaw AvaLung™ pack

View of BD's rear access panel on the Outlaw AvaLung™ pack.

All those features are nice, but none were enough on their own to convince me to make the Outlaw the new sack on my back. However, it only took one time using the zippered access back panel to convince me.

Review: ABS Vario 25

It is hard to argue against the ABS Vario system. To date, the only serious complaints revolve around the quality of the packs available. That changes this year with the Vario25. It is large enough for a day pack, well suited for going hut-to-hut, and it packs simply and easily.

Review: SnowPulse HighMark22 Airbag Pack

The Highmark22 from SnowPulse does a good job of balancing the need for organization with multiple compartments, without getting overly complex.