Announced today, Black Diamond has issued a voluntary recall of all first-generation JetForce avalanche airbags backpacks. Black Diamond is encouraging all JetForce owners to visit jetforcerecall.com for information regarding returning packs for a required firmware update. According to Black Diamond, in a limited number of cases, the JetForce packs sold by BD, Pieps and POC […]

Avatech, the maker of avalanche safety tools, plans to offer an updated Smartprobe this winter, alongside updates to their Avanet web platform. The Park City, Utah-based startup of MIT whiz kids launched their brand last fall with a smartprobe, dubbed the SP1, and their Avanet observation-sharing website.

The trade-show floor of Salt Lake City, Utah’s Salt Palace is a proverbial candy store, a seemingly endless display of shiny, bright and new ski and snowboard gear to come. And there’s good news for backcountry skiers and riders at the candy store, with continued focus on lighter gear designed to keep up, increased bc-designed offerings by big brands and a whole host of nuanced accessories that might make earning turns easier.

The trade-show floor of Salt Lake City, Utah’s Salt Palace is a proverbial candy store, a seemingly endless display of shiny, bright and new ski and snowboard gear to come. And there’s good news for backcountry skiers and riders at the candy store, with continued focus on lighter gear designed to keep up, increased bc-designed offerings by big brands and a whole host of nuanced accessories that might make earning turns easier.

Brint Markle was living in Zurich, Switzerland in 2010 when he had a major wakeup call. The Philadelphia native was working overseas as a management consultant and skiing at Verbier, as he often did, when one of his friends was caught and partially buried in an avalanche on the backside of Mont Fort.

Beyond our skis, boots and poles, beyond our shovel, beacon and probe, there are certain very valuable items we all take into the backcountry. Each one transcends the virtue of creature comforts into backcountry civility, safety and style. They are the standard by which we live and breathe. When it comes to bring it or don’t, it’s like sex; it’s better to have it and not need it than it is to need it and not have it. So it goes for my list of compiled must-haves.

Yesterday, in cooperation with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), Black Diamond Equipment issued a voluntary recall on their Whippet and Carbon Whippet self arrest ski poles. The models, produced between May 1, 2013 and January 15, 2014, feature a notched, polished, stainless steel tip that has been found to break under certain circumstances, though, according to the CPSC, no injuries have been reported.

In the November 2014 issue, Editor Tyler Cohen explores the recent boom in tech bindings that have an increased focus on safety—and DIN certification. While researching this story, he posed several questions to four leaders in the binding industry, Fritz Barthel, the inventor of the Low Tech system, Edwin Lehner, lead binding designer with Dynafit, Jeff Campbell, a PhD candidate studying binding mechanics, and Dr. Irving Scher, chairman of the American Society for Testing and Materials’ International Snow Skiing Committee. Here’s what they had to say.