Avalanche Beacons – My Personal Preference
To confuse the issue, the “best” beacon will depend in part on your personality. In the hands of a Luddite, the fanciest, feature-packed beacon will be overwhelming, but to a techo-geek, it may be a dream come true. For me, a big consideration is durability, as I tend to be hard on my beacons. If I’m looking at a new beacon and it doesn’t seem like it could withstand being dropped on the floor, I don’t care how many fancy features it has, I’m not going to buy it. I want a beacon which is fast, easy to use, durable and absolutely intuitive. Complicated button sequences to change modes doesn’t cut if for me.
I had the good fortune of doing a beacon review for SKIING Magazine last year. The premise was (this came from SKIING) that you open the box, turn the beacon on and use it without reading the instructions. I liked this idea as it was so real-world, for better or worse. In the hands of someone who practices often, any beacon will be fast, but in a panic situation, intuition counts for a lot. My personal pick from the beacon litter of that era was the Pieps DSP, based in part on its tight feature set, but also because it looked like I could drop it a few times. So far I’ve been very happy with it – your mileage may vary.
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Category: 02 Gear