BCA Float 30

To me, weight is a non-issue (I am a Duke not a Dynafit).

From what we're hearing it'll probably be less than 6lbs. Most standard 30L packs without hydration are a little over 3lbs. My Avalung is just under 4lbs.

When you think about water, shovel, food, extra googles/gloves... the 2-3lbs seems to me to be irrelevant.

I am not sure what you mean by your pack becoming a liability...are you saying that the extra weight could actually overshadow the airbag safety benefits?

Is there empirical evidence that this device is way more effective than say an avalung?

Err, yes and no.

First off, any airbag backpack can still be worn with a sling-style Avalung. So it's not an either-or-question.

Now, the Avalung track record so far is excellent ... but very limited. The last time I checked, it was about five or six deployments, all successful in terms of the victim being able to get the mouthpiece in the victim's mouth. BD used to have a separate Avalung website, with detailed accounts, but doesn't seem exist now?
Anyway, the burials, while full, have been of very short duration (see the cool youtube video), with one notable exception:
www.avalanche.org/~issw2004/issw_previou.../CROWLEY%20ORAL.html
This was also a perfect "natural experiment" as we say in economics, since the victims were buried right next to each other, and only the Avalung user survived.

The BCA backpack of course has no track record yet, but the original version has a long track record:
www.absairbag.de/abs_fakten.php?chid=124...3524ba087473b62&m=17
Two notable aspects:
1. It is still possible to die with an airbag pack, as three users have proved.
2. The survival rate of 98.3% needs to be compared with the survival rate of users w/o an airbag pack (which could be further split into w/ vs w/o Avalung).

Now, the survival rate for full burials is 40% (McLung, avy handbook). But what is the chance that if you're entrained to some extent (i.e., enough that would merit pulling the ABS trigger), you will be fully buried? I have no idea. But if the non-ABS partial-burial rate is 90%, and the non-ABS survival rate from partial burials is 99%, then the overall non-ABS survival rate is 93.1%.

And time for yet another complication: that non-ABS full burial survival rate reflects lots of no-beacon burials. Increase it to, say, 60%, and the overall non-ABS survival rate is 95.1%.

Since all this of course is in a spreadsheet, I've been playing around with lots of variations. Suffice it to say with with any reasonable inputs I use for the three key non-ABS variables (i.e., full burial incidence, full-burial survival rate, partial-burial survival), matching the 98.3% ABS survival rate is tough (though I do get very close).

so what about the cost, how much more does it WEIGH?
are you willing to lug that thing up there? at some point the weight of your pack becomes a liability...

The weight penalty for the original ABS design is about 4.5 pounds compared to a comparable pack.  BCA says its design weighs less, but no official specs yet.

To me, weight is a non-issue (I am a Duke not a Dynafit).

So what do you bring in your first-aid kit?  Certainly you could always think of additional useful items to bring -- except for the weight penalty factor.  (Even an AED could come in handy in the backcountry, and only a few hundred dollars for a used model on eBay, plus if weight is a non-issue...)

Comparing first-aid to an airbag is apples to oranges.

If I break my leg or slice my head open I will probably live, even without first-aid.

If I am burried in an avalanche I will probalby die. Airbags are the best way to avoid getting burried. My skiing ability is not significantly impacted by an extra 5lbs in my pack (even though its probably a little less than 5lbs).

I have as much chance of having a heart attack in the backcountry as anywhere else...thus no need to evaluate AED

Comparing first-aid to an airbag is apples to oranges.
If I break my leg or slice my head open I will probably live, even without first-aid.

How full-sized is the CPR mask that you bring?

And by first-aid, I really meant (though neglected to specify - sorry) an emergency kit in general.  So on a daytrip do you bring a tent, sleeping bag, stove?  And what about a PLB, Spot, and/or sat phone?  All these might be just as statistically likely to save a life as an ABS pack, but they also entail a weight penalty.

And on glaciated terrain, how big (and heavy) is your rack for crevasse rescue?

I have as much chance of having a heart attack in the backcountry as anywhere else...thus no need to evaluate AED

Anywhere else, if you’re in, say, a large office building, department store, recreational facility, or airport, an AED is at the ready nearby.  Otherwise, you stand a good chance that an ambulance with an AED might reach you quickly.
In the backcountry, if anything you probably have a higher chance of needing an AED.  So if a few more pounds of weight is not an issue, then bringing along an AED for each touring party would be a good idea.