Avy Kit - Glencoe & Nevis Range Skiers Discount

As a special for folk who ski regularly at Glencoe or Nevis Range I will knock 10% of the RRP of this gear and arrange via the net/forums a meet up at Glencoe or Nevis Ranges Beacon parks and give a couple of hours on avalanche avoidance and companion rescue for free to folk who's names I have who take up the offer.

Back country Access have  the best kit for the Freeride, Slack/Backcountry skier. Designed by folk at the top of their game, the gear is well styled, light, very strong and reliable. BCA are not a purely money motivated crew. There is a big emphasis on education and prevention. I really like the fact that when the company hear of a success using their kit they get a carry out of beers from the micro brewery next door and everyone has a few.  BCA are not a huge company but a small dedicated crew. I really like the company ethos and the small dedicated crew who make it happen and for the right reasons.

I know how good kit needs to be having been a pro patroller and avy educator, and having been at the sharp end of over 70 avalanche rescues while also maintaining my own enthusiasm for getting out there when it dumps.  The T1 Beacon is still one of the best and easiest to use value for money beacons.  The T2 is a bit faster and better at close searches and beats the pants of it's rivals for reliability, ease of use and speed as well as price.  I can do ex demo T1's for £135 or new ones.  The ex demo's are in mint condition.  The shovel and probe shown below are bomb proof and designed to lay flatter when inside a pack.  Having kit on the outside where it can be ripped off in a slide is not a good idea. BCA packs are designed for ease of access when the shit hits the fan, but BCA shovels lay nicely in any pack.  

Crankitupgear, which is between Glencoe and Nevis on the A82 will be a refill centre for the BCA Float system of Air Bags.  So pop them to your hearts content in practice and for a minimal fee, (or maybe if its saved your arse for Free!) and I will refill them.  Give me your story, maybe some pics and I might also give you a carryout. You don't get offers like that from the Teutons.

Dont forget folks.  Getting avalanched means you have cocked up somewhere. Take care out there and if you need kit or advice I am always willing to help.  It's not just about money for me either, its about saving lives through prevention and consequence reduction.  

B1 ext Shovel RRP £44.95

Float 30 Air Bag   RRP £629

Stash OB Pack RRP £90

Tracker 2 Beacon RRP £285

Tracker 1 Beacon RRP £225

Profile 240 Probe RRP £49.95

Shovelling

Probing

Tracker Avalanche Transceiver/Beacon Searching

Still waiting on the snow here in the West of Scotland.  Folks are antsy as the met is now showing some white stuff next week. Until then why not get out the back country safety kit and have a practice with like minded friends.  Recently on  "Winter Highland"  a forward thinking guy tried to get some folk together but with no success.  A shame as folk need to run the drills to get slick. I hope he tries again as its a good initiative. I still have a couple of ex demo T1's for £130 and of course the new T2's at a good price as well as shovels and probes.

Also a link to follow for you folks out there sceptical about the efficacy of Air Bag Systems. Well folks they seem to work and at less the £650 for the BCA Float that doesn't seem too bad to save a life.  I can take you to many sites where the RRP of a pair of fat boys with rocker will set you back more than that before you even buy la fixations.  Check this and the clip below out:

http://www.backcountryaccess.com/2011/11/17/kitzbuhel-avalanche-the-ultimate-airbag-test/


Avalanche, from Different Perspectives 

Touring & Off Piste. 6 Things You Need For Christmas

IMHO the best book around for those new to being avy savy.  Only £6 from Amazon

Need any of these give me a call.  Special offers for MRT's on Avalanche PPE and for Guides/MIC pro users prices on request at extremely competitive prices.

Dynafit "Guide" Ski oh so light!

Dynafit Freeride Binding. Featherweight

Dynafit "Zeus" TF -X Boots, Alpine performance at half the weight

BCA Float 30 ABS. Cheaper by a mile than any other ABS system and easier to refill

Tracker 2. The fastest and only "real time" transceiver. Cheaper than competing beacons and outperforms them

All of the above available from crankitupgear.com stockist of the full range of Dynafit, BCA and Whitedot ski equipment.

Re Post - Signal Overlap in Multiple Burials

If you have a beacon with a "mark" feature beware of signal overlap. Listen to the audio signals from this old analog beacon. Analog is good for demonstrating signal overlap because of the audio picking up and letting you hear all signals. This short home experiment I did illustrates overlap, as two pulses merge to become one for a time.  Imagine you have four vehicles on a track.  One travelling at 20mph, one at 30, one at 40 and one at 50mph.  At some point all 4 would be in line and seem as one. So like the vehicles the more beacons on transmit the more chance of signal overlap.  There is a risk when you "mark", that you mark two as one therefore missing one victim, or more if its a really big scenario.  Manufacturers do try and address this by varying the pulse rate. Imagine what would happen in a large group with the same Beacon pulsing at the same rate!  But, there is a limit to how much they can do this before performance is affected. Therefore there is still very realistic possibility of synchronization of the signal and marking two, with one hidden.

Signal overlap is more frequent with 3 and even worse with 4 beacons. For that reason on training session limit your transmitting beacons to less than 4 as you might confuse a student, or in real time miss a victim.  At least if you know of signal overlap you can be aware of it.  Establishing as soon as possible how many are in a party, how many have beacons, and how many victims are left out of the tip can help the rescue leader establish if the search is compromised and the searchers can try and separate any overlapping signals.

Contact Davy Gunn if you require any further information