Pieps

Pieps DSP Pro Avalanche Beacon

It's tough to beat the odds—if you spend a significant amount of time in avalanche terrain, the chances are pretty good you'll be involved in a slide, whether as a victim or a rescuer. There's a whole lot you can do to minimize your chances of being caught, and while an avalanche beacon won't prevent accidents, it will increase your chances of being found or finding a victim before it's too late. The Pieps DSP Pro is designed for skiers and snowboarders who spend serious time in relatively high-risk areas and need a beacon that's fast, accurate, and easy to use.

The Pro has a simple two-button interface that gives you only the options you need for fast and effective performance—send, search, scan, and flag. Just slide the side switch to toggle between transmitting and receiving and mark burials using the flag button. When you've flagged a signal, the three antennas automatically switch to the nearest unflagged signal for streamlined searching. The Pro has a 60m circular search range and a smart transmitter that, during a burial, automatically switches to the antenna with the clearest broadcasting range, minimizing dead spots and signal traps that can drastically reduce a beacon's effectiveness. It also ensures that its signal isn't overlapping with any other transmitting beacons, minimizing misleading signals and indirect search paths.

Designed to keep things simple and efficient, the Pro has a distance readout, a directional arrow, multiple-burial indicators, and a battery-life display, which provide all the necessary information without cluttering the screen. The Sport is also compatible with the Pieps iProbe to reduce search time even further, particularly in a multiple-burial scenario, and has a built-in inclinometer to help you assess slope angle. There are also available software updates to keep your beacon up-to-date, and it will work with older beacons regardless of the software installed.

Although beacons are pretty awesome, please remember that they are NOT a guarantee that you will survive an avalanche; get educated, learn to use your tools, travel with trusted partners, and be smart out there.