Is your avalanche beacon obsolete?

[roughrider99]

i know that this should be in the avalanche saftey section but i thought i would get more opinions here.

I was checking out the Canadian Avalache center website and there is a section about oboselete avalanche gear espicially older beacons and why they are bad. They said that single antenna (analog) beacons are pretty much obselete with the new 3 antenna digital units. It mentions that if you are wearing analog and buried next to a guy with a digital beacon, the guy with digital will be isolated first meaning more time for you under the snow.

Now i have been wearing an sos beacon since i started, it still looks and works like new and in my practice runs i'm up to 5 mins depending on how far away i am. I am a beleiver in the Keep it simple concept and thats what the sos is and thats why i chose it over trackers digital at the time. I would love to have the new peips but spot gps and snowpulse bag killed the budget for that.

Whats everyone else using and what are their thoughts? heres the link for u guys to see http://www.avalanche.ca/cac/gear/obsolete

 

[backcountryislife]

I find it funny how adamantly I hear people defend their archaic beacons on here.

I've got an S1 I use & two tracker 2's for spares, very happy with both.

 

[V-Man]

The new tracker 2 isn't that expensive. Totally worth an upgrade in my opinion.

Five minutes was respectible with an analog beacon but is truely horrible now. A two year old could find someone quicker with the new beacons.

If I was your riding buddy I'd give you my tracker 2 and take your analog so you could dig me up faster.

 

[Flange]

I have to agree with V-Man. 5 min is a long time...too long actually. Last time we practice, we had 3 beacons hidden and we could routinely find all three in under 5 min using Pieps DSP's and Pulses. Tracker's and Tracker 2's were a nightmare for multiple burials. They are super quick for single burials, but none of us could gain confidence when there were 2 or 3 beacons transmitting.

 

[roughrider99]

for starters i'm really defending my "archaic" beacon i would love the peips, don;t know about the tracker 2 but the 1's in my avy course didn;t have nearly the range that i did. i guess i shoulda been more detailed. for a 5 min find thats when the beacon is about 300ft OUT OF RANGE if i'm within range i'm with 3 and have gotten close the 2min mark, for my practice scenarios my friend then tells me where the sledder was last seen up on the hill. and i'm sittin at a point that would be safe from the avalanche runout. so i would say 5 min is damn good when the beacon is out of range and you got an 800ft long zone that i gotta cover myself. we usually plant the beacon towards the upper part of hill just to make eachother walk up and cuss about it

 

[Flange]

Ya I guess if your starting that far away then its going to add to the time. Just to clarify what we were doing, our beacons pick up first signal within 50-60 metres so we were starting just out of range of the practice area, typically within 70-80 metres. There are times when I can here the analog signal outside 60 metres with the Pulse, but the digital distance reading doesn't typically kick in until about 55 metres.

 

[Ox]

Headed to the hills last week for the first time in a few yrs. My boy went along this time and I borrowed a beacon from my chumm for him.

I was wondering if there had been much improvements to beacons since we bought our BCA units 12/01.

I know that these were to have been a great improvement over the units just a few yrs older, and to date I hadn't seen anything either here or in the mags to make me thing otherwise. (I hadn't seen much on this recently as I had faded from this site for a while.)


So how bad is our BCA's?

I see comment that they don't werk as well with multi's as some newer models. Any other issues?

.

 

[Flange]

Ox, I'm assuming you have a BCA Tracker? If so, I think you have a great beacon. I used one up until a couple of years ago and if I knew for sure there was only one victim to locate, I'd grab the Tracker everytime. I find it very quick to react while maintaining great accuracy. The only problem I had with it was when I tried to find multiple burials. Two beacons weren't always difficult to find if they were located far enough apart, but if they were located relatively close together, or I added a third or fourth signal, I was lost with it.

If there was one piece of advice I could offer concerning the Tracker, it would be to always be sure and activate the "auto revert" mode when you turn it on.

 

[Ox]

Yes - Tracker. I was trying to think that there was a model name for it, but didn't go dig through the truck yet.


I have never had to "use" them, but they seem to opperate extreemly easilly compared to the grid search method that I had read about for the older units up to that time. (And were still available and popular yet at that time.)


Not sure what the auto-revert mode is I guess. ???


Per the multi issue. We don't ride west all that often, and I have found that riding in conditions that could cause need for a beacon was no place for me! I know for fact that others had lost sight of me and were not paying attention. I will stick to my very small groups - thank you very much! So hopefully multi's are as much of an issue in the foreseable future. ???


Thanks for the reply!

.

 

[roughrider99]

the multi search function isn;t nessecaarily designed for large groups. but if say your in a group of 4 which i would say is the avg group size out here, if 3 buddies are buried close together, thats where the mutliple person function works nice!

 

[Flange]

the multi search function isn;t nessecaarily designed for large groups. but if say your in a group of 4 which i would say is the avg group size out here, if 3 buddies are buried close together, thats where the mutliple person function works nice!

3 out of 4 buried? That would be one nasty situation for a guy to be in, especially if you're one of the guys buried!

 

[Ox]

the multi search function isn;t nessecaarily designed for large groups. but if say your in a group of 4 which i would say is the avg group size out here, if 3 buddies are buried close together, thats where the mutliple person function works nice!

Yes - I fully understand that. LOL!

My point was that with the smaller groups - hopefully you are that much less likely to have multiple burials.

.

 

[summitboy]

If it's not a 3 attenae beacon it's time for the junk pile. Do a Avy course and you will see what beacons are good and which are junk. The range is very different and the newer Pulses and DSP types are so fast. I really like the Pulse. Our whole group uses them and they work very well. If your using a analog beacon your not doing your friends or yourself any favors. It's 300-400 bucks. It's chump change in the grand scheme of things ! Trash it !

 

[0007]

I got cought up in the multiple burial's thing when I was shopping for a new beacon last year, the reality is that it is very rare to have multiple burial's
I narrowed it down to the tracker 2 and the DSP

Big thing to me is you need to be able to use your beacon anywhere any time in a panic situation, maybe you are injured or in shock, times like that really mess with your head and you won't remember anything let alone how to use a star trek tricorder
I chose the T2 just because it works in real time, no waiting like some beacons require
It's fast fast and simple to use
If you are still thinking about multiple burials, get the DSP IMO

 

[Boston Racing]

Multiple burials keeps coming up.....If you are worried about that so much , Find new riding buddies. Stuff happens but if you are using your noodle it will only happen to one person. One person on the hill at a time and everybody else in a safe zone.

 

[backcountryislife]

Multiple burials keeps coming up.....If you are worried about that so much , Find new riding buddies. Stuff happens but if you are using your noodle it will only happen to one person. One person on the hill at a time and everybody else in a safe zone.

So when you happen to come upon a scene where there is a multiple... SCREW THOSE GUYS! They're probably STUPID anyhow!

Multiple happen in unexpected places (I found that out the hard way, luckily it was only me though), multiple people have been buried on trails, in valleys, and other places where they weren't "on the slope" at the same time. SH** happens, and to claim it'll never happen to you... well, for me... that's so last month.


A HUGE percentage of what I do has nothing to do with me or my crew, it's for the other guys out there, stupid as some of them may be. I've come upon two situations in the last few years that could very easily have been multiples. One both got out, the other, two got out & one was caught. His buddies went looking for someone with a beacon without thinking (the buried guy didn't have one...) so I was left as the only one on the scene.

People can justify their unwillingness to upgrade to better gear however they want, but it comes down to just not being as concerned about the other guy as they are about themselves. (pretty natural, don't get me wrong)

I knew you guys from CO springs were sketchy...

 

[Boston Racing]

If you practice with it all the newer beacons they all do multiple burials.....bottom line.

I am not worried our group will be caught in a multiple burial situation. If for some reason we do....we are prepared. Truth is we ride alone. If we come up on you and you are under the snow already and your buddies dont get you out....we are probably going to be on a recovery mission.

The only place I have seen a bystander save a life is at Grand Lake when Bdubs and crew dug out a flatlander. Most of the time there isnt 20 sledders within 5 minutes of you slide.


If you ride with multiple people and are in a multiple avalanche....sucks to be you. Thats even more reason to use your noodle. I think it is a known fact that in an avy you are helpless if buried. If you buddy is buried 10 feet from you S&R is just coming to get the bodies.....Bottom line....ride smart

 

[0007]

I think you are going a bit overboard
Every beacon will work in a multiple burial, a couple of beacons are better than others at that particular subject
Just because you have a Brand A beacon does not mean "screw those guys"
The most important tool in an avalanche is not the beacon, it's the operator, if the operator is adequate at best (that's us) then they need simple

 

[backcountryislife]

So you never ride anywhere that you could possibly see other people get buried?
Don't get me wrong, I don't just hang out in bowls waiting for a slide, but I DO come across other people during the day. Me, I get bored riding around in the trees all day, it's fun on occasion though. Even then we do see other crews on occasion.


As for all NEW beacons working for multiples... yeah, we were talking about having an older beacon when the new 3 ant. units work so much better, not a debate about which 3 ant. unit is better.

Nobody is talking about 20 people, all it takes is 1... YOU. I don't ride gaper lake either, sledders are all over the place.

As for repeating the obvious, thanks, very useful in this discussion.
The fact is, bad things happen on occasion, and even if it's not you, I feel it's important to be prepared.

 

[roughrider99]

If it's not a 3 attenae beacon it's time for the junk pile. Do a Avy course and you will see what beacons are good and which are junk. The range is very different and the newer Pulses and DSP types are so fast. I really like the Pulse. Our whole group uses them and they work very well. If your using a analog beacon your not doing your friends or yourself any favors. It's 300-400 bucks. It's chump change in the grand scheme of things ! Trash it !

maybe chump change for some ppl, i had saved for a couple of years and just bought a spot and snowpulse bag. next year is pieps dsp, our entire group stills rides with analogs anyways.