Anybody own a Dynafit ABS system?

I've been tempted to get the avalung over the past few years, especially the compact model. I've tried them on and it appears feasible to me to ski with the tube in the mouth on slopes steep enough to avalanche, etc. One can still get buried face down with the air bags and it doesn't take a deep burial. Reading accounts of avalanche victims, a big danger comes with inhaling snow during the avy. But in my day-in day-out skiing, I think we're pretty conservative; I don't think the avalung would change that, so why buy it then? The real danger I think we've encountered is on trips to interior B.C. where the snowpacks are much more likely to have some inapparent insidious long-lasting hazards. Interesting question--I'm becoming more adventurous as my skiing improves, my partner less adventurous as we get older.

If this is the less adventurous model of Regine, I'm glad I never tried to keep up during her more adventurous days!<br><br>Best to you both,<br><br>Mark

Well, I accidentally triggered my Dynafit ABS system for the second time today at Hurricane Ridge (first time was last spring). I had started a policy of taking off the trigger before removing the pack, and that was good, but today I somehow triggered it while wearing the pack and removing a skin. Guess the moral is that you'd better have that trigger removed while doing anything besides strictlly skiing. This is a downside to the system.<br><br>I skied a couple of runs with the inflated balloons sticking out to either side of me -- actually worked quite well--just couldn't ski to close to trees. Ever see a Monarch butterfly telemark ski in the backcountry? <br><br>I took some deserved razzing from the guys I was skiing with.

Tim, what you say is logical, but I think I still disagree. That is, for me, there is one more factor: because I am already using a beacon, I have already decided to increase my acceptable risk by going out into steeper terrain with potential avalanche hazards. I hope to never have to actually use the beacon, and I try to make decisions which will ensure that. If I (we) make a mistake, however, I hope that the beacon will minimize the consequences.<br><br>So, if I suddenly had an ABS system on my back (in addition to my beacon), the question for me would be whether I would change my decision making compared to just having the beacon. And that's where I would try very hard not to let the ABS change anything. I would try to keep the perspective that the ABS was not a license to increase my level of acceptable risk, but rather simply an additional protection in case of a bad decision. I think this would work for me, but everyone is different and it might not work for others. I can imagine, however, situations where peer factors could come into play and make it more difficult for me to keep my desired perspective (ie. if everyone had an ABS).

For what it's worth, I have just had 4 days off piste skiing/snowboarding with a guide in Klosters Switzerland. The guide was the manager of a small guides collective there and all his guides wore ABS rucksacks. I did a similar trip last season to Val d'Isere and the guide company we used there all had them as well.<br><br>Interestingly enough clients aren't supplied with them, they get Ortovox transceivers only and no shovel or probe. I guess the theory is the guide finds any client caught in an avalanche but has no expectation of a client finding him if he is buried. I didn't want to ask what was suppossed to happen if the guide and some of the clients were caught.