Black Diamond QuickDraw Tour Probe 190 - 2007 BCS

Probes are not the place to cut corners and try to save weight - they need to be simple, quick to set up and reliable. I like this probe as it can survive a good, hard pounding without breaking. Other probes I've tested in hard snow (like automated beacon test sites) have bowed, bent and/or had the tensioning mechanism come loose. Not this one.

Everything about this probe is great, except, uhhh...the length. Which is kinda the point of a probe. I'm going to discuss this with some guides from Mountain Madness tonight at their avy seminar and post here again.

I'm tempted to already say this probe is too short for just about anything.

If you are doing backcountry skiing and need a beacon, definitely get something longer than a 190. I own this and after using it for one season you realize if you ever had to use this probe other than in drills, the extra little money for a longer probe definitely makes you and the people you are skiing with feel a lot more comfortable

This probe flips out and is ready to go in about 1.2 seconds.. the click-top lock is super easy and super quick.. Thankfully, the only thing I had to use it for on my last trip was checking for rocks in the snowbank under our cabin so we could jump off the deck after a few cocktails, but it worked. A somewhat unique feature is the sandpaper-ish grip, which is really effective in keeping the probe in your hands, but tears your gloves up a bit - if you're using your probe, your gloves are the last thing you care about, so I am backing it... dropping your probe during a search is just not good. Great probe.

Goes together quick and holds great to some serious impacts and to hardest snow conditions. I use it both for skiing and smowmobiling. Another quality Black Diamond piece of equipment.

Easy to use, fast assembly and better quality than most.