Tag: avalanche safety

Review: G3 Cabrio AR ski pack

With the Cabrio, G3 did a bang up job of laying out two compartments that do what you want a ski pack to do, without letting the airbag system compromise the basics. There are also a ton of lash points for skis, helmets, and what-have-you that are hidden in dedicated stash pockets so they aren’t …

Keep making backcountry turns

Arva Reactor 32/40 liter airbag packs

Arva has done a good job of balancing opposing goals with their Reactor avalanche safety packs. They provide ample touring utility while minimizing the weight of the airbag plumbing. The ingredients are a text book example of how to synthesize the best features currently available for cartridge systems: inert gas, a mechanical trigger for simplicity …

Keep making backcountry turns

Airbag Effectiveness – Less than you thought.

Terrain consequences are extremely important. If the avalanche we may trigger will take us over a cliff, into trees, down a very large avalanche path, or into a terrain trap, then we have a low chance of survival, despite whatever rescue gear we may carry. — Bruce Tremper In the aftermath of a recent rash …

Keep making backcountry turns

Airbag Pack Overview for 2017

This is a quick roundup of new avalanche airbag packs coming our way for the 16/17 ski season. As of today, these are the only packs I’ve actually seen. More to be added later, so check back in a week for a longer list of new or significant changes. Arc’teryx Tongues have been wagging for …

Keep making backcountry turns

Part VII: Taming the Dragon of Self-Destruction

Continued from Taming Your Avalanche Dragon, published 17nov15. When we have self-destruction as our dragon we lack the ability to care for and nurture our own best interest. Self-destruction may be fuelled by a general propensity for self-hate, depression, or a sense of despair. This is not a sought-after ingredient for making good decisions in …

Keep making backcountry turns

Pt VI: Taming the Greed Dragon

Continued from Taming Your Avalanche Dragon, published 17nov15. Greed Greed is an easy dragon to understand, especially on a powder day when the sun is shining. The statistical fact that more avalanche tragedies happen on sunny days with new snow underpins the concept of greed. The phrase, “There are no friends on a powder day” …

Keep making backcountry turns

PR: AvaTech launches crowd sourced AvaNet

Editors Note: The following press release comes from Backbone Media, Avatech’s public relations firm. Ordinarily I’d rewrite the information a bit, but this is a fairly straight forward announcement of a software platform that has the potential to dramatically improve the understanding of the snowpack in regions that we like to ski. The key to …

Keep making backcountry turns