The Best Avalanche Beacons for Skiing and Snowboarding in the Backcountry

Buying a fancy avalanche beacon that has all the bells and whistles doesn’t mean you are prepared. It means you potentially have the tools to be prepared. Whatever avalanche transceivers you get, PRACTICE with it. Practice a lot. You need to be so good with your transceiver that you don’t even have to think about what to do if something happens.

With that all said, here’s a brief rundown of some of the common modern avalanche transceivers and their pros and cons. Oh and I’ll be mentioning “signal suppression” which is fancy talk for the transceiver can ignore a signal making multiple burial situations easier, basically turning it in to multiple single burials.

Top Avalanche Beacons We Tested

Ortovox Diract Voice

Ortovox set out to make searching for avalanche victims easier, faster and more human like with the voice activated Diract Avalanche Beacon. What sets this beacon apart from other avalanche beacons you have used is the voice navigation feature.

Our brains are able to process voice faster than visual ques making this a powerful and extremely reliable beacon to use for backcountry skiing and snowboarding.

With a weight of only 210g this three antenna avalanche beacon is comfortable to wear for long days in the mountains and uses a rechargeable lithium ion battery.

Pieps Pro BT Beacon

The Pieps Pro BT Beacon is a professional style avalanche beacon that is going to be best suited for guides, SAR members and ski patrollers. Boosting both a 60-meter circular range and 60-meter search strip this is the beacon you’re going to want to have on you if the group has spaced out over farther distances.

One of the most important pro level features on this beacon is the Digital Signal Processing function that alerts to older beacon frequencies which can be nice for guides when dealing with skiing with unfamiliar skiers and their equipment.

Upgrading the beacon via USB or Bluetooth is available and PIEPS is always thinking up new ways to make their beacons more powerful. Also compatible with the TX600 and iProbe avalanche tools.

BCA Tracker 4

The new BCA Tracker 4 Avalanche Beacon offers the ability to search over a 55-meter circular range and 50-meter search width strip. The beacon is powered by three AAA batteries batteries and weights 215g with the batteries making it one of the lightest beacons in this years test.

This three antenna beacon comes with a chest harness, the ability to flag multiple burials via signal supression and a large very easy to read LED display screen for when in search mode. This beacon looks and feels to be bombproof and has the reliability of trust of Backcountry Access we have all come to love for so many years.

One of the easier and to the point beacons to use when it comes to following the LED screen in search mode and you can upgrade the new Tracker 4 via USB.

Black Diamond Recon X Avalanche Beacon

Black Diamond’s Recon X Avalanche Beacon is a great beacon to start with thanks to a 60 meter range circular range and the power of three antennas.  The beacon has a toggle on the side to slide up between search modes along with a button on the front for flagging multiple burials.

The Black Diamond Recon X Beacon has a of weight of 217g (without batteries) and takes three AAA batteries to power.

BD’s Recon X comes with a chest harness that’s comfortable to wear and all bunch of PIEPS Technology found in the higher end models.

Best Avalanche Beacons Past Winners

by Nate Fochler

The best transceiver is the one you know how to use competently. It’s up to you to determine which avalanche beacon is for you, maybe there’s a specific feature that’s important to you like having an analog function for snow safety. That helps you narrow down your options. Hopefully this roundups helps, and hopefully you don’t ever have to use your transceiver for anything more than practice.

BCA Tracker 3+

Upgraded software version of the BCA Tracker 3+ (which makes Super Mario-esque sounds upon start up), All the same stuff as the 2, but this version of the Tracker Avalanche Beacon has upgradeable software.

Signal suppression only can mark 1 signal at a time with the Tracker Beacon and is very popular amongst guides.

Mammut Barryvox S

I may sound biased on this one but that’s because it’s what I use so I know it quite well. It’s like the Barryvox, but has analog mode. And such a huge plethora of other features it can be overwhelming. Not worth the money unless you are a professional, and even then there is a bit of a learning curve as this is the most advanced transceiver on the market. Important to note is the Mammut/Barryvox Transceivers have W-link, which is an identification software only in their transceivers.

All transceivers run on 457 kHz, due to signal overlap though even the new transceivers with a signal suppression capability can get confused and drop marked signals and otherwise confuse you. The W-link is a separate identification method…Here’s an analogy, 457kHz is like identifying us all as humans. We know other humans when we see them, but its tough to differentiate between them sometimes. Just like Transceivers. The W-link is giving a name to those humans…and transceivers. Not only can you identify them as humans, but you know them by name. So if you have a bunch of W-link capable transceivers your ability to use signal suppression is huge…you can mark like…well I’ve done 10. Key point though is if the transceivers don’t have w-link, don’t count on signal suppression.

Black Diamond Pro BT

The Pro BT/Black Diamond Guide BT is the updated version of the Pieps DSP Pro. It has all the bells and whistles and is the high end transceiver offered by Pieps. This Black Diamond Beacon has a scan function identifying numbers of signals within set distances, an inclinometer, analog mode and all the features of the previous two. The BD Pro BT is also a popular avalanche beacon amongst ski guides.

Pieps Powder BT

The Pieps Powder BT (The identical Black Diamond Branded Beacon version is called the Black Diamond Recon BT) is the slightly fancier version of the Pieps DSP Sport Avalanche Transceivers. The BT indicates that it has Bluetooth and is upgradeable via an app. The only other differences are a motion sensor, increased battery life, and a tiny bit better range in the Powder BT. Ability to connect to the Pieps app makes this a great avalanche beacon.

Arva Neo Pro

This is Arva’s answer to the Barryvox S. Similar user interface, with analog mode, customizable settings, and up and down buttons allow you to scroll through transceivers. It has better range than the Evo 5, 70m search strips in digital and 80m in analog. A note regarding the search strip width and range claimed by all of the transceivers on this list, it is always less than what they specify.

It’s better to assume a shorter range so you don’t end up at the bottom of a slope without having picked up any signals. Moving back to the Neo.  The Neo Pro has a user friendly interface and all the features of a high end avalanche beacons. The only downside to this Arva Avalanche Beacon is being a bit heavy compared to…every other beacon on this list.

Ortovox 3+

The 3+ is Ortovox’s high end avalanche beacon. It has multiple signal suppression, auto revert and an easy to use intuitive design. It is digital only with no alternate analog mode. The 3+ has what Ortovox calls “smart antenna” technology which identifies the orientation of the transceiver and can transmit on the antenna which will be most effective for being found. Important to note that the 3+ using software version 2.1 had a voluntary recall due to the software causing an issue with the transmit mode. Ortovox released a software update in June 2020 to deal with this issue.

Arva Evo 4

Evo 4: Arva is a lesser well known company from France. They’ve been around for over 30 years but until recently were a bit more of an obscure brand in North America. Now however they’re starting to become more common and more easily available to us.

The Evo 4 is Arva’s most affordable avalanche tranceivers. It’s a triple antenna digital only unit, with multiple signal suppression. It has the usual features like group check and multiple burial indication. It has a unique feature which wasn’t terribly well received though; the transceiver turns on when it’s clipped into its harness (similar to the old school Ortovox M2) and turns off when unclipped. So you won’t forget to turn your transceiver on, but because it turns off when you remove it from the harness it can’t be held low to the snow surface for your fine search. Arva has since released an aftermarket chest harness that resolves this problem this avalanche beacon had.

Pieps Micro BT Button Avalanche Beacon

Micro BT Button and Micro BT Sensor: These are Pieps’ extremely compact and lightweight offerings. Using only a single AA battery but still maintaining fairly decent battery life, these transceivers will fit unobtrusively under your coat. The BT features Bluetooth, meaning you can update software via the Pieps Avalanche Beacon app on your phone and manage features.

The primary difference in this Pieps Beacon is the Micro Sensor Avalanche Beacon has no Search/Send button, it’s designed to automatically switch to search mode when you remove it from the harness and start moving it around. Some people thought this was a breakthrough innovation while others hated it, so they released the Micro BT button to appease both crowds. The Micro BT button, you guessed it, has a button to switch from send to search.

Discontinued Avalanche Beacons & Transceivers

Arva Evo 5 Avalanche Beacon

The Evo 5 is Arva’s lightweight transceiver close in weight to the Pieps Micro. It has upgradeable software which the Evo 4 does not, and better range than the 4. This three antenna digital only avalanche beacon, multiple signal suppression and auto revert to send mode. And it looks like a spaceship.

Related Beacons We Tested in Avalanche Terrain

1. BCA Tracker3 Avalanche Beacon
2. Ortovox Zoom+ Avalanche Beacon
3. BCA Tracker S Avalanche Beacon