Reviews
Reviews of the lastest gear
Monday, 07 July, 2008
Avalanche cords make a come-back
A new avalanche safety system is about to be launched onto the market. Called the “Flash Avalanche” the system is a development of the avalanche cords used by ski tourers before the widespread adoption of avalanche beacons. The main advantage is that is consists of four cords which are only deployed in the event of a slide. Aimed at off piste skiers the Flash Avalanche will sell for 55 euros.
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Thursday, 24 April, 2008
Multiple burials revisited
There is quite a battle raging in the normally sedate world of avalanche research. On the one hand Team Backcountry Access says that true multiple burials are so rare that backcountry travellers should focus on shovelling and probing techniques, on the other side Manuel Genswein, avalanche educator and expert in multiple burial search techniques, accuses the other side of “statistical tricks” and says Backcountry Access are ignoring the “inconvenient truth” that the Tracker beacon is technologically“out of date”.
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Friday, 07 March, 2008
Dynafit Zzeus boots and Manaslu Skis
Last year’s splash with the introduction the Zzero ski touring boot range (amongst other goodies) would be a hard act to follow so Dynafit has opted for broadening and deepening its line-up by moving into Freeride territory with the Zzeus boot and Mansulu skis.
Dynafit Manaslu
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Sunday, 02 March, 2008
Multiple Avalanche Burials, rarer than you think?
There is a great deal of focus by amateur backcountry enthusiasts on multiple burial avalanche accidents. It is a major factor in avalanche beacon choice with transceivers such as the Pieps DSP, Ortovox S1 and Barryvox Pulse simplifying the whole process with easy to read graphical displays. But should skiers and boarders be losing so much sleep over the multiple burial scenario?
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Monday, 18 February, 2008
ORTOVOX informs: F1 and standards conformity/compatibility
ORTOVOX has never advised users of the ORTOVOX f1 plus that this avalanche transceiver is obsolete. All ORTOVOX avalanche transceivers conform to the avalanche transceiver standard and have been transmitting correctly since 1981 with the frequency required these days of 457 kHz +-80Hz transmitter tolerance. Your ORTOVOX avalanche transceiver can therefore be picked up by all receivers working properly worldwide!
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Tuesday, 12 February, 2008
Ski Accidentology
It’s said that journalists “never let the facts get in the way of a good story”. When the facts concern snow, avalanches, swanky Alpine ski resorts and junketting doctors the press pack is out in force. The office phone was ringing hot last week as British journalists tried to find an interesting angle on the death of a 40 year old doctor in Val d’Isère.
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Thursday, 31 January, 2008
Time to retire the Ortovox F1?
Ortovox have recently advised users of the ORTOVOX F1 Plus, manufactured in the early 1990s, that their beacons cannot be serviced and may need to be replaced. A recent study by Thomas S. Lund (Signal Strength vs. Signal Timing - The Avalanche Review - Vol 26/2) questions whether it is time to retire other analogue beacons including the venerable Ortovox F1 given that there may be compatibility problems with more recent digital beacons.
Please read ORTOVOX comments on the F1/F1 Plus
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Friday, 25 January, 2008
The Beaufortain gets a Beacon Basin
A new avalanche beacon training area has opened in the Areches ski resort in the Beaufortain mountain range. The Areches is the home of the Pierra Menta ski mountaineering marathon so it seems appropriate they have made this move.
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Wednesday, 02 January, 2008
Beware of tracks!
On snow the sayings go: To make the first tracks one can be tempted into stupidity and when a slope is covered in snow it can anaesthetise one’s caution, forgetting basic safety rules. This is a little story with a lesson.
Words and pictures by Didier Givois
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Tuesday, 01 January, 2008
Vallorcine renews off piste ban
The mayor of Vallorcine, Patrick Ancey, has passed a bye-law for the start of the 2007-2008 season banning off-piste skiing in 2 sections of his community and restriction access to a third sector to days when the avalanche risk is less than 3 (Considerable) on a scale of 5. The ban has not gone down well with snow professionals in the Chamonix valley. Mr Ancey is up for re-election in the spring of 2008.
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