Latest beacon recs?

[waxloaf]

Hey guys - I’m in the market for a beacon but am a total newb. I poked around on the forum but a lot of the beacon advice I found is a bit stale, and online reviews from evo or other sites don’t seem to have terribly consistent advice.

Any recs from the collective on models, or features that I should absolutely have as a newbie? Any older models that are still worth it? Anything I should definitely be avoiding?

Thanks much

[galibier_numero_un]

Our "own" Jonathan S contributes to this amazing site: https://beaconreviews.com/

I'm sure others will comment further, but the above will add a lot of context.

The TL;DR is that Mamut is tops, BCA (purported to be most beginner friendly) is no easier to use than any of the others. Pieps / Black Diamond with their switching fiasco (and Black Diamond's handling of it) has fallen out of favor (rightly or wrongly - the debate continues). The other players (Arva, etc.) have their fans.

Most importantly, it's the craftsman and not the tool (i.e. practice with it).

... Thom

[MyNameIsAugustWest]

I'll add that as a noob last year, I found the Mammut to be simple to use. My Avy 1 instructor was Marc Chauvin and he is one of the most respected guides in the US. He was impressed with that beacon.

[adrenalated]

My standard advice is go to your local specialty backcountry shop, try out every beacon they have, then buy the one that's most intuitive for YOU to use. And buy it from them, don't be that guy.

Beacon is not the place to penny pinch.

I quite like my Mammut Barryvox S but I wouldn't kick most of the modern 3 antenna beacons out of bed.

[snowaddict91]

My standard advice is go to your local specialty backcountry shop, try out every beacon they have, then buy the one that's most intuitive for YOU to use. And buy it from them, don't be that guy.

Beacon is not the place to penny pinch.

I quite like my Mammut Barryvox S but I wouldn't kick most of the modern 3 antenna beacons out of bed.

But don't buy a BD/pieps product. While they have had multiple issues with multiple products in the past few years, the real issue is how they've handled it.

[PNB]

Just my modest experience as common user.
I used for years the (meanwhile old) green Mammut Barrivox and I was happy with the handling.
Granted, I used the search mode beside group checks just for drills, but I got fast enough on target.
What I never liked was to carry the device on the body because it interferes with backpack straps and is a minor PITA if have to add/remove layers.
So after thinking it over decided to carry the beacon in a SUITABLE pants pocket and that a smaller device would be better.
I got a Pieps Micro BUTTON (not the self-switching thing) and I was reasonably happy.
Just at the start of one tour it simply failed to start up and I couldn´t fix it, not even removing and re-inserting the battery nor later at home despite all thinkable attempts (software update, keys combinations while starting, ...).
Luckily I still had the the Mammut in the car and I could save the day.
I shipped the Pieps and I got it back a few weeks later working again but w/o any failure explanation.
A bit shaken and looking for a similarly small device I got an unused second-hand Arva Evo 5 in early summer.
I could just do a fast test so far and the Pieps picks the Mammut´s signal earlier/farther than the Arva, which could be relevant or not.
I´m keeping the Pieps till I´ll get familiar with the Arva and I´ll decide which one I´d give away. The Mammut will definitely stay with me.

No matter which device you´ll get, bear in mind that no one will point you straight to the sender, but will have you follow the EM-field lines AKA "airport approach", otherwise you can easily get confused trying them out.

[teledad]

Big fan of the Mammut Barryvox beacons, great range and intuitive to use even for casual users. IMO the "S" model is worth the extra cost for the better/larger display, but if the price seems too steep the base model is good as well. Agree with adrenalated, go to a shop and try them out if you can. I would generally avoid older models and certainly anything that's not 3-antenna.

[waxloaf]

Thanks guys - this is just the intel I was looking for. Found a Barryvox S for a good price so pulled the trigger this morning.

If anyone else is looking, Campsaver has them on sale for $420, and if you use the code SUM100 you get an extra $100 off. (Mammut Barryvox S Transceiver 2710-00140-1012-1 , 16% Off & Free 2 Day Shipping — CampSaver)

[davjr96]

Love my Barryvox S. Completely anecdotal but I did a rescue refresher class last season and we had a collection of most the beacons on the market between the members of the class. We did a little shoot out and the Barryvox consistently picked up the single first, sometimes by as much as 10 yards. It was also intuitive to use in multi burials.

As always, the best beacon is the one you know how to use.

[cat in january]

Distance is nice, but I would take processing speed on a fine search

[whyturn]

Mammut barryvox is easy, light and intuitive. But get what works for you


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[XXX-er]

especaily if your are an old fuck make sure you can read the display, or hear the unit or whatever

my buddy bought that ortovox flip-phone style back in the day, it was OK in the store wearing glasses but the first he uses it we are out in rogers pass he can't read the display cuz he wears contacts to ski

I think i told him to give that fucking piece of shit to his kid

[altacoup]

I’ve got the latest PIEPS pro. I like it. It’s so ridiculously easy and fast compared to the F1 I learned on a long time ago. Single searches are absurdly easy and multiple burials are pretty slick. That said I’m pretty skeptical over BD/PIEPS. 2 significant issues with their last 2 models is a huge red flag. The barryvox looks sweet. Reading beaconreviews.com the S version looks like it’s added features might actually be a detriment to the basic user who never travels with more than 3 partners. What do experienced users have to say?


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[tenB]

Thanks guys - this is just the intel I was looking for. Found a Barryvox S for a good price so pulled the trigger this morning.

If anyone else is looking, Campsaver has them on sale for $420, and if you use the code SUM100 you get an extra $100 off.
(Mammut Barryvox S Transceiver 2710-00140-1012-1 , 16% Off & Free 2 Day Shipping — CampSaver)

It’s back up to $545 now..

[adrenalated]

The barryvox looks sweet. Reading beaconreviews.com the S version looks like it’s added features might actually be a detriment to the basic user who never travels with more than 3 partners. What do experienced users have to say?

I disagree. You can leave the S in the basic mode and keep Pro mode turned off and take advantage of the larger screen and more detailed audio and visual feedback even during single burial, simple searches.

[waxloaf]

It’s back up to $545 now..

Wow - glad I caught the sale

[Jonathan S.]

[...] BCA (purported to be most beginner friendly) is no easier to use than any of the others.[...]

Agreed. And amusing example of hysteresis (one of my favorite economics terms!) as a typical FB beacon rec discussion will inevitably have numerous comments about how BCA is the easiest to use, only b/c that was true about BCA two decades ago (with the competition long since having caught up to BCA).

[...] Pieps / Black Diamond with their switching fiasco (and Black Diamond's handling of it) has fallen out of favor (rightly or wrongly - the debate continues).[...]

You should see -- or, rather, try to manipulate with winter handwear -- the latest of the three version of the Pieps/BD diminutively sized beacon:
https://skimo.co/black-diamond-recon-lt
... as if anything they've oversolved the inadvertent switching problem by making it perhaps the most difficult of any beacon to switch modes.
(I haven't tested it yet for other attributes, but I suspect it's just like the two predecessors except for the new physical switch for Send<>Search, i.e., quite good!)

And speaking of diminutively sized beacons, I have two for sale here:
http://nerandorace.blogspot.com/p/gear-swap.html

[...] I quite like my Mammut Barryvox S but I wouldn't kick most of the modern 3 antenna beacons out of bed.

Agreed. Beacon testing is far less interesting than when I first started beacon testing about a decade-and-a-half ago, since they're all so similar now, in good ways.
Back then, it was like comparing a skimo race binding, an all-around lightweight Dynafit-style binding, a heavier-duty Dynafit-style binding, and a Shift-style binding, i.e., all of them could be considered to have the same core functionality, but they went about it in such different ways, and hence had widely varying pros vs cons.

especially if your are an old [...]

I used to scoff at those concerns when I first started beacon testing about a decade-and-a-half ago.
Now though, sigh...

I disagree. You can leave the S in the basic mode and keep Pro mode turned off and take advantage of the larger screen and more detailed audio and visual feedback even during single burial, simple searches.

Agreed: Mammut really has perfected the secret sauce there for a single beacon that can offer you max gizmos while also being able to be set up in KISS mode.

Also, for the Diract Voice, which I think really does deserve the hype for its audible instructions, I finally conducted some formal tests to confirm my range results here:
https://beaconreviews.com/Specs_OrtovoxDiract.php
... and the results are definitely on the shorter side:



As for how much of a difference this could make, I happened to experience an excellent example of this during some ski patrol training for a timed test of two beacon signals.
The simulated slide path was larger than the effective search strip width, so I had to do lots of zigging & zagging before locking onto the first signal.
After that, everything performed flawlessly for both victims, including signal suppression.
I think the time I lost by excessive zigging and zagging would be more than offset for many (most?) searchers by the time savings from the voice instructions.

However, in the context of searching a large slide path for an unknown number of victims (perhaps even zero), the Diract Voice would definitely be a worse choice than some of the competition.
(I'm thinking of contexts like, to use two Eastern examples, patrollers at Tuckerman Ravine and Whiteface -- with its sidecountry Slides -- where avalanches might be reported, with no idea as to how many skiers were there at the time, how many of those skiers skied off safely yet without checking in with anyone, how many skiers might be buried, and how many of those buried skiers have beacons.)

[XXX-er]

I used to scoff at those concerns when I first started beacon testing about a decade-and-a-half ago.
Now though, sigh...
.)

Riding the chair with the same old fuck, he holds up a BD flick lock and asks me what the writing on the pole sez so he can adj the length

I e-mailed BD and suggested they need to make the printing bigger on everything cuz of the old fucks

I duno if the idea ever made it into a product design meeting ?

[Jonathan S.]

[...] he holds up a BD flick lock and asks me what the writing on the pole sez so he can adj the length

I don't recall have that problem when I last skied on September 1.
But let's see how my eyesight fares later this month...