The Best New Snow Safety Gear for the Backcountry

As a rule of thumb, the best transceiver is the one you know. A lightweight, new-tech transceiver will do you no good if you aren’t familiar with how it works. However, if you are ready to upgrade and are looking for the lightest weight beacon on the market, the French brand Arva has got you covered. The EVO5 has most every feature of a larger 3-antenna beacon: group check, U-turn feature, marking function, multiple burial indicator, and auto-revert to send mode. Yet it only weighs 6 ounces with a compact size (4.3 by 2.7 inches). It also comes in a slick, irregular shape for less bulk. To top it all off, the EVO5 has interference management system that reduces bandwidth and ignores other frequencies when in search mode. Meaning, if someone left their phone on or there are other interferences that might mislead you from a buried beacon, you will be alerted and the range will narrow for a more accurate search. Arva and Mammut are currently the only brands to have this software.
[$320, us.arva-equipment.com]

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