Best avalanche beacons

You just can’t afford to compromise on something as vital as an avalanche beacon. One person or several people’s lives will depend on avalanche beacons working properly. You should get the very best and most trusted avalanche beacons for anyone who goes to the snow slopes.

Features to look for in avalanche beacons

There are several main factors that determine the efficiency and effectiveness of an avalanche beacon.

Ability to find a single buried victim

Avalanche beacons show an arrow and the distance where the victim is buried. They also give out beeps that get faster as you approach the buried beacon. The most important factor is how good your avalanche beacon is at pin pointing and locating the buried beacon. This is the single biggest factor you should base your decision on.

How fast you can move while locating a signal

As you move in the pattern that you been taught to locate a victim, different avalanche beacons allow you to move at slightly differing speeds. Some beacons will work seamlessly even if you move fast, whereas some will not be able to keep up with your speed and give a slow down indication. This is one aspect of your avalanche beacon that you should be aware of. Find out what are the speed restrictions of your avalanche beacon and buy one according to your requirements.

The signal catching range of a beacon

The range of avalanche beacons start at around 20 meters and are usually in the range of 30-40 meters. There are beacons with wider ranges too, but when it comes to doing the avalanche search patterns, then you do it with a 30 meter width and 15 meter length to cover for beacons with the smallest range. Though it is good to have a beacon with a bigger range, but it is not something that you should base your decision on.

What are the 3 best avalanche beacons available in the market today

Since avalanche beacons are such life critical devices, we do not want to recommend anything, but would like to leave it to the experts. However, we would like to point out that Outdoorgearlab.com did an actual test of the best avalanche beacons in the market today and recommended a few.

Mammut Barryvox S

The best beacon overall according to them was the Mammut Barryvox S which scored the highest in all their parameters, range, speed, single victim search, fine search, multiple burials and features. You can check the Mammut Barryvox S here.

Backcountry Access Tracker 3

The next in their ranking was the Backcountry Access Tracker 3. Check it out here.

Arva Axio

Their third ranked beacon was the Arva Axio. It has a 60 meter search strip width. Check it out here.

You may also want to look at the best avalanche air bags, which are also a very useful safety accessory for skiers and anyone who frequents the snow slopes.

Top 10 bestselling Avalanche Beacons

To help you with your search for a avalanche beacon that suits your needs, we bring you the top 10 most popular avalanche beacons today. These 10 bestsellers have been ranked according tot heir number and velocity of sales.

Take a closer look at all the 10 options below, and read about their features, check out their actual buyer reviews, and pick the avalanche beacon that fulfills all your need. Remember not to compromise on quality when it comes to a life saving device like an avalanche beacon.