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Honest reviews, avalanche education and fun.

Had the chance to try the new Arva beacons in February.  Ran them through some basic searches and here’s what I found.

EVO 3+   $279.  3 antennas. Digital. 5 year warranty.  Made in France

Harness: Good

Ease of use:  Very easy to use, but I found you had to take the harness off your body to do an effective fine search.  This means taking off your jacket.  Can use with glove on.

Single burials: Very easy to use.  Takes you right to the beacon.

Fine search: Must go very slow.  Arva’s are the slowest beacon I have  used on the fine search.

Arva Axis $359.  3 antenna. Digital/analog. Marking function, victim sensor, software update, motion sensor. 5 year warranty.

Harness: good

Ease of use: Very good. Can use with glove on.

Single burial: Works well, but numbers jump.

Double burial: Slow to flag.  Extremely slow to flag and then pick up next beacon.  Once first beacon was flagged (marked), it would take 20+ seconds for it to pick up the next beacon.  I was looking for the Arva Link and an Ortovox D3.

Fine search: Must go very slow like the Evo 3+.  Must move the beacon very slowly in the fine search.

Notes: I like the U-turn symbol on the screen when you are heading in the wrong direction.  Can be hard to see the transmit light on the body of the beacon.

Arva Link $449. 3 antenna. Digital/analog. Marking function, software update, motion sensor, compass, w-link. 5 year warranty.  I used the beacon in the novice mode.

Harness: good

Ease of use: Very good. Can use with glove on.

Single burial: It’s a wild goose chase.  Directional arrow is moving all over the place.  Must walk slow. Zig zag all over the place outside of 20 meters from the buried beacon.  Short range.  Too sensitive.  Was looking for an Arva Axis and then tried again looking for an Ortovox D3.  Epic Fail.  Failed to take me directly to the buried beacon twice.

Double burial: I didn’t even try this since it failed on the single burial.

Fine search: Must move the beacon very slowly in the fine search.

Summary:  The most expensive Arva is the worst one (Link).  All of them are very slow in the fine search.  There are much better beacons on the market (Pieps DSP’s, Barryvox Element, Barryvox Pulse, Ortovox 3+, Ortovox S1, BCA Tracker and Tracker 2).

I then checked www.beaconreviews.com and he gave the Arva Axis and Link 5 stars.  These are definitely not 5 star beacons and it makes me wonder if he ever tried them.  Lost a lot of credibility for that site.  I looked for other review sources and I found one in January 2012 issue of Backcountry Magazine.  They found many of the issues I experienced and said the link “Needs improvement, but has lots of potential”.  Also stated that  “future advances of the w-link are compelling-when Arva resolves the existing issues”.

In this issue of the magazine, I read the article on Multiples and Marking.  They suggest only buying a beacon with a marking feature.  I don’t agree with this.  It’s the search techniques that make the difference in finding multiple beacons.  Problem with most beacons is the operator who only practices an hour a year.  Article recommended using the 3 circle method or micro search strip if marking failed.  I would suggest using parallel search strips or micro search strips.  3 circle method can be very confusing.  The main thing is:  Don’t put multiple people in danger at the same time.  In North America, when you have multiple complete burials, you have fatalities.  It’s the digging the takes the most time in rescue.

There’s another Vail Ski area called Vail Pass and here’s why I prefer it.

-It’s untracked for days .after a storm.  You can ski untracked all day long

-No lift lines, no mazes, no crowds.

-Don’t have to worry about getting hit by anyone, since you’re skiing one at a time.

-EPIC really means EPIC, it’s not a marketing term.

-You can bring your snowmobile on the mountain.

-Food selection is great, it’s whatever you bring.  You can drink beer and BBQ anywhere on the mountain.

-Nobody cares if you have Epic Points.

-The top of the mountain “lodge” is small, but the people are nice.

-You’re not skiing with 20,000 people.

-Season Pass is only $40.

-Someone isn’t trying to sell you something everywhere you go.

-Everyone works as a team.  Even people you don’t know, help out.

-You can crank the “Lift” up to 80 mph if you want.

-There’s no slow zones, ski school can’t cut line and there’s no trail maps.  You’re on your own to make decisions.

-You can build a kicker anywhere.

-In bounds skiing definitely has it’s place, but for real adventure and the best powder, you can’t beat the backcountry.

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Learn: To find a beacon in under two minutes, search efficiently for multiple beacons, dig effectively, probe for a victim, lead and execute a fast avalanche rescue.

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New Sno Pro 600

Spoke with the guys at the Garmin booth today at the Teva Mountain Games.  They make 12v Vehicle Power Cables for some of their gps units.  One for the Garmin Oregon 450T is $28.00.  This and a ram mount would be great with the 12v outlet on the 2012 Arctic Cats.  Save you a lot of $ on batteries.

$99.00 from GoPro.com.  Does not include the cameras.  Here’s a photo taken through one of the 3D glasses.  Looks pretty cool in person. Great quality.

Intro: I have held off on buying a GPS. I was not happy with the performance of the models on the market.  The models owned by friends and ones that I had used had maps that were next to useless.  When you have used topo maps for years, it’s hard to go to inferior maps. Problem with most GPS units is that the contour lines are so far apart that it was hard to read the terrain.    In real backountry situations, you do not want to go from point A to B in a straight line.  Another problem with many GPS units was ease of use, they were not very intuitive and I remember seeing one manual that was over 90 pages.  I was waiting for a unit that was proven, had excellent maps and was easy to use.

Well, Garmin came out with it and here’s the review.

Product: Garmin Oregon 450t

Purpose: To mark routes, locations and to find your way.

Price: $499.  Can be found on the internet for 429.99  www.gpscity.com

Weight: 1.063 lbs

Duration of test: 6 months

Size: 2.3″x4.5″x1.4″.   Screen size:  1.53″x 2.55″

Batteries: 2AA.  I would suggest lithium for winter use.

Waterproof? Yes, but does not float.

Features: Preloaded topo maps, compass, altimeter, color screen, trip computer, elevation plot, 3D view, track manager, stopwatch, alarm clock, calendar, and much more.  It’s a touch screen!

Color: Grey/black

Would I buy again?  Yes

Overall rating: 4 to 4.5 stars out of 5.

Review: When this came out, I asked around and found a few  owners who raved about it.  I purchased it and have been very happy.  Must use lithium batteries for winter use.  Battery life is a little short in cold weather, especially at -20.  May want to keep it in your warm jacket.

This GPS is so easy to use, that even I figured it out.  Maps are great and the functions are very intuitive.  The quick start manual is 7 small pages.  I have used this to map routes to huts, mountain peaks, and plotted snowmobile routes.  Easy to save the routes and use in the future.  You can even touch a point on the map and easily set that as your destination.

My introduction to owning a GPS has been painless.  This is an extremely useful tool and the maps are excellent.  The Garmin brand is the hands down favorite among students in my avalanche classes.  I would suggest getting a ram mount if you are going to mount it on a vehicle.  Don’t forget to learn how to read topo maps before getting a GPS.  Going in a straight line is hardly ever the best route.  Learn to read the terrain so you can make better route choices.  Ram Mounts can be found at www.gpscity.com

CDOT clearing Independence Pass 5/25/2011 on the west side.  Opening 5/26/2011.  Snowpack on the East side is 452% of average, West side is 361% of average.  Expect 30′ snowbanks in places.

Clearing Trail Ridge Road, Rocky Mountain National Park.  23′ of snow in places.

Well, I decided to give them the test.  Five minutes in a creek and not a drop of water.  Gore-tex works.  This is the Klim Adrenalin boot.

Product: 2011/12 Backcountry Access Float 18 Avalanche airbag pack.

Purpose: To save your life in an avalanche.

Price: $685

Weight: 6.5 pounds

Duration of test: A little over 2 months.  Used it for skiing and snowmobiling.

Size: 18 liter packpack with 150 liter airbag.

Review: Ok, the pack I have been using for two months is a sample and has been upgraded for production.  I have seen one of the newer prototype versions and it really looks good.  The funky graphics are gone and the pack looks great.  Can’t wait to see the final version, since it just keeps getting better.

I had been using the Float 30 quite a bit and the first time I had to use the Float 18 was on the way to the Ski-Doo demo tour at Thunder Mountain Lodge.  The road was closed due to avalanches, so I had to snowmobile 5 miles to the lodge.  First thing I realized was that I had to pack “smart” to get all the essentials in the Float 18.  Extra gear went in the storage compartment under my snowmobile seat.  If you don’t have seat storage, I would suggest getting a tunnel bag.  Don’t leave the essential gear behind.  it’s hard to fit extra layers in this pack.  I can fit a water bottle, first aid kit, gps, SPOT, sports bars, camera, fire starter, bivy sack, probe, shovel, spare gloves, sunglasses, and skins in the pack.

Very low profile pack.

This pack is great!  You hardly know you’re wearing a pack.  It’s very close to the body and fits great.  We rode in some very deep snow, got stuck a few times and I didn’t even take the pack off when digging the sled out.  With most packs, you take them off when stopped, so you can have a break from the pack being on your back.  Not with this one, keeping it on is no problem.  Skiing with it is also great.  I have had this pack on for almost 7 hours nonstop on some days.

The pack features BCA’s new easier to pull trigger and new cone shaped trigger handle.  You can pull the handle with an oven mitt(I tried it).   Just reach across and grab.  No more lining up your fingers around the cable.   So easy to grab and I can deploy it easily with two fingers.  Also features a leg strap, ski carry, probe and shovel sleeve, waist pocket for camera, interior zippered pocket and it’s easy to refill.  Comes with everything to do a refill (o-rings, lube and wrench).

New cone shaped trigger handle works great.

This has been the airbag pack I have been using most of the time for the last two months.  Nice to have such a low profile lightweight pack.  I feel this pack is going to easily be the best seller in BCA’s line since it is great for skiing and snowmobiling.   Size is perfect for most people.

Rating:  5 out of 5 stars.

This is the powder we had on the Grand Mesa when testing the pack.