Mountaineering gear news, reviews and tests
I’ve previously posted some of the amazing footage relating to the survival of a guy caught in an avalanche wearing an Avalung system. It is pretty amazing stuff and if you haven’t seen it yet I suggest you click through to take a look and come back because it sets you up for the next [...] Read more »
There’s a new avalanche safety airbag safety system that is just coming out where they have teamed up with The North Face to embed their amazing and lifesaving avalanche safety gear into backpacks made by one of the leading brands in outdoor equipment. Now I’ve been a huge fan of the Avalanche Airbag for a [...] Read more »
I almost missed this but there has been a recall on some Avalanche Airbag System gas canisters that could prevent them from inflating. The company has just sent me the full statement and letter it is sending to clients. Please be sure to check your system if you have one. ABS recalls steel cartridges for [...] Read more »
The dramatic pictures of this rescue, that took place in mid-winter in Scotland, more or less tell it all. Climbers were stranded and injured under cold conditions. One (Daniel Rafferty, 19) had already fallen to his death. The Royal Airforce flight sergeant, Mark Lean, knew nothing about climbing. Yet when he was winched down to [...] Read more »
I’ve written quite a bit in the past about advanced avalanche safety gear that is meant to help you survive an avalanche. These are bits of safety equipment such as the Snowpulse, ABS (Avalanche Airbag System) and Black Diamond Avalung that are all meant to help you once you have actually been buried by a [...] Read more »
Ferrino has just introduced a new backpack with a built in Avalanche Airbag that promises to help keep people safer on the slopes. The Cyber Safe, which seems a pretty offbeat name for a backpack (does it come with virus protection and anti phishing software?) claims it is the lightest avalanche airbag system on the [...] Read more »
Snow storm daisy dumped a lovely load on us in Germany this week (along with the rest of Europe) and although I wasn’t on the hill, the weather made it feel like I was. So it was perfectly well timed that I stumbled across a great beginners guide to choosing an ice axe over at [...] Read more »
Post-Christmas avalanches in Italy that killed 7 have provided a sobering reminder of the dangers they pose. In this instance it seems that a couple of people disregarded warnings of a high risk of avalanche and ventured out on snowshoes before being swept away. A group of rescuers including guides and instructors set out to [...] Read more »
It is hard to think of anything less cool than venturing outdoors wearing a plastic or polystyrene dome on your head, but like bicycle helmets and hard climbing hats, ski helmets are slowly catching on.For the past couple of years parents have been putting helmets on their kids – probably because the little ones don’t [...] Read more »
In recent years personal locator beacons have fallen in price hugely. Not too long ago these were used mainly by governments and on ships and cost upwards of $1000. Now you can get them for just a couple of hundred bucks. One would think that rescue teams would think this was a good thing. After [...] Read more »