Comments on: WARY Avi Vest – Review of Airbag System for Skiers and Snomobilers

By: gillesleskieur

gillesleskieur — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 08:57:58 +0000

so did you really PACKed your Tracker up? just kidding, pretty uncommon product…

By: Davey Cooper

Davey Cooper — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 08:53:04 +0000

The whole experience was very interesting and the story was published in the French magasine “Neige et Avalanches” with commentries from mountain guides, experts on snow conditions, etc … here is a description from our French Skitour website (in French) which isn’t so useful I guess.

http://www.skitour.fr/forum/read_172266.html?goto=172266#goto

However, if it is helpful, I’ll translate it to English in the middle of October (work is insane at the moment :wink )

By: Lou

Lou — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 18:29:38 +0000

Davey, I’m glad you brought that up. Common mythology with avalanches is you have a lot of time to fiddle around once you get caught. Perhaps yes in rare cases, but usually NOT. The ripcord handle on these things needs to be big and easy to grab. Only way.

Glad you survived.

You got a story to tell us?

By: Scott

Scott — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 16:34:39 +0000

Nice write up AJ.

Looks like something useful for quick one lap BC ski trips where you may only need a minimal amount of gear. But the small release pull (which probably could be modified?), lack of ski carry system and that it looks tedious to get on and off deters me from checking it out as a ski pack. But I could see why sledders may like it.

Does it come in a bulletproof version for those accidental forays onto private land?

By: Davey Cooper

Davey Cooper — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 15:48:00 +0000

My first reaction when I see this, is that the release mechanism is too small.

I had to use an airbag last March and I had about half a second to find the release mechanism whilst wearing gloves before I was hit and thrown into the air.

Having experienced the first few seconds inside the avalanche whilst my bag was still inflating, I can say that finding the release mechanism once in an avalanche will be even more difficult.

Best regards from the French Alps.