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abjectwoe
May, 2025

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Why Are Beacons so expensive?

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tripnip
Posts: 1882 - Karma: 482
I don't understand why they are so expensive its not like the technology is that new or revolutionary? Could some one answer this one for me?
14 years ago
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POW-WOW
Posts: 1464 - Karma: 40
Its not going to be like that I just go with my friends and we do a lot of little hikes in pretty safe areas and mainly build some kickers. I'm not trying to get a darwin award at all, I don't buy Jiberish or anything like that or expensive. I've kept my skis for five years and I'm still using them, and the skins and trekkers are all I can afford with going to resorts a few times a year.
14 years ago
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TheBigApple
Posts: 1169 - Karma: 488
Mandatory exit gates are impossible in Canada.
14 years ago
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powderhound100
Posts: 2510 - Karma: 144
Mr. Drail having a beacon will not do anything. If he starts a slide and buries people he may be able to find them and dig them out, but chances are things will not turn out well.


Education is even more important then a beacon in my opinion. Yes once your educated you will buy a beacon, but just a beacon will not do it. You have to take a class or learn from people that really know there stuff. Have not just a beacon, but a shovel and probe and know how to use all of them well.
14 years ago
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stickski
Posts: 1938 - Karma: 1,529
seatbelts are free and people still throw their life away by not using them.. the price is no excuse, stupid is as stupid does.
14 years ago
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pelle_munch
Posts: 4110 - Karma: 503
this
14 years ago
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Dntel.
Posts: 1026 - Karma: 21
got it, i was a little mislead by your wording. Have fun and be safe dude!
14 years ago
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Jeremybbush
Posts: 67 - Karma: 35
this

Its really easy to step out of bounds, but sometimes it can be hard to spend 300$ on something you might not even have to use, I guess the idea is that hopefully you dont have to use it and its there just in case. But still, they could be less expensive, the companies know that when people are buying beacons theyre saying "my life is worth 300$" so the businesses try to get the most out of that... thats how business works.
14 years ago
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FUUUCK
Posts: 18426 - Karma: 4,899
An unlocked iPhone 4s is $599.

It will break if you drop it.

If will break if you get it wet.

iOS will crash a few times in it's life.

In 1 year warranty, after a 5 years it will most likely become a brick like most every consumer electronics.

The Mammut Barryvox Pulse is $450

It won't break if you drop it.

It won't break if you get it wet.

The firmware will never crash.

5 year warranty, could conceivably last you as long as you want.
14 years ago
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steezenskis
Posts: 1044 - Karma: 31
you know what else is necessary for the bc? skis. and theyre like 600, so quit complaining.
14 years ago
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dprice21
Posts: 295 - Karma: 23
i lol'd
14 years ago
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pelle_munch
Posts: 4110 - Karma: 503
but there's an app for everything
14 years ago
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ReignMan
Posts: 1852 - Karma: 226
yes... i have $0. 300 is a shit ton.
14 years ago
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.RYAN66
Posts: 5381 - Karma: 225
american monopoly at its finest.
14 years ago
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CrotchKiller
Posts: 9037 - Karma: 6,944
.
14 years ago
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casual
Posts: 6712 - Karma: 6,753
why the fuck is everyone jumping down this kid's throat? Jesus Christ....

They ARE fucking expensive.
14 years ago
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POW-WOW
Posts: 1464 - Karma: 40
Exactly and when people make the point about how much you would pay for your life it really depends on where you are skiing and lots of other things. You could be really hardcore or just go once a season on a lame little hike which isnt worth paying for it. It would be cool if you could rent-a-beacon. Anyone want to start this?
14 years ago
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Literature
Posts: 13673 - Karma: 3,087
It seems like the reasons for the cost have been covered: low sales relative to other electronics, high development costs, gnarly insurance, and the requirement of absolute dependability.

But...

What about skiing is cheap? Why should a beacon, being one of the most important pieces of equipment that a skier can own, be the thing singled out for being expensive?

People have skied in the backcountry for hundreds if not thousands of years without beacons. There's nothing stopping someone from doing that now, but the reason that so many of us have stepped up is that BC safety, especially in high traffic areas, has become a community effort. Strangers depend upon each other to know their shit and respect the lives of the other users while they are out there.

I love the freedom and ability to tune out in skiing. It's great. But I don't want to face the day when I have to make the phone call to a loved one or parent about how their partner or child just died. Especially if it's caused by someone's carelessness or lack of tools. In areas with lots of backcountry travelers, the whole is only as strong as the weakest link, and if that weak link thinks thrice about endangering their life, my life, or my friends lives because they got called out on a message board for breaking that community trust, it makes enough of a difference.

This may be just a thread about the cost of a beacon, but it's also swerved into "I'm not going to buy or use one." Hence the throat jumping.



14 years ago
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Drail
Posts: 14045 - Karma: 10,323
no shit sherlock. it doesn't change the fact that without the beacon and there are people fully buried, everything is fucked. You know, there's a funny stat that the more avalanche education you have the higher chances of getting caught in avalanches are. So, in a twisted debate, having education would actually be worse. Obviously it's not, I'm not an idiot. But don't try to change realities stating that a beacon will not do anything.

Most people who die in avalanches die from trauma, if that's what you were trying to say with the whole "will not turn out well" thing, but that's besides the point I was making. Don't go warping my words around to mean something they aren't. Bottom line, if you don't have the gear, don't go, no exceptions. It's simple really.
14 years ago
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the-big-lepowski
Posts: 1212 - Karma: 541
Emotions seem to be running quite high in a 24 hour old thread.  I am fabulously grateful for my upcoming AVI 1 course, my dog (Phoebe), the glorious terrain of the Blue Mountains, the Wallowas, and the Cascades, my lovely pair of Moment planks, the sumptuous feast of thanksgiving recently past and last but not least, the FREE beacon rentals my school's outdoor program offers.  That is all.  
14 years ago
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DR.SHRED
Posts: 2134 - Karma: 503
i think apple should make a skiers/snowboarders iphone that does shit like recive and transmit signals like beacons, you take a picture of a slope and it shows you where an avy is most likley to happen, tells the tepmature based on a themometer in the phone, reads wind temp with a gague built into the phone, tells the degrees of a slope if you lay the phone on the slope,  take a picture of a cliff and it tells you how big it is, and I have more where that came from but maybe not apple but someone should make a bc technolgy multi tool type device
14 years ago
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Idahoskier420
Posts: 719 - Karma: 86
and then everyone will start bitching about the iphone being so expensive.

Any specialized piece of technology is going to be expensive for reasons already outlined above.

JUST WEAR ONE OR DON'T GO OUT
14 years ago
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powderhound100
Posts: 2510 - Karma: 144
I am saying it is a lot more then the gear. This is what you said:

" or if you drop into a line above a group of strangers and set a slide off burying them, and not be able to find them... that's just NOT AN OPTION! If you are anywhere near other people in the backcountry without a beacon you are putting their lives at risk just as much (if not more) then your own. "


A beacon will not fix everything, you need all the tools, some training and some common sense. If you drop a line above a group of strangers and set a slide burying them then you are doing something wrong. Beacon or not.


Chill your nips Drail, your so sensitive, I am not warping your wards.
14 years ago
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BASEDRILEY
Posts: 1451 - Karma: 898
For me its not about me being okay it about my friends being fine if they get burried and i have to find them. I wouldnt be able to deal with letting a friend die cause i didnt have a beacon and they did. It also is pretty scarry to say the least if you think about of you under and you know no one els has a beacon. id say pay 500 for a good one that will find anyone.
14 years ago
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Ghini
Posts: 2267 - Karma: 3,057
Everyone that said monopoly is an idiot..there are lots of brands with beacons..
I didnt read the whole thread but do you understand that developing new technologies takes years and lots and lots of money?
+ its worth it..
14 years ago
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Drail
Posts: 14045 - Karma: 10,323
Have you done much skiing in the slack country? It's pretty chaotic out there in the really busy zones. You can have all the "education" and "knowledge" in the world, but that won't change the fact that you just showed up to the top of a chute, you can't see all the way to the bottom, and you don't know if there's another crew halfway down, who may or may not know what they are doing or where they should be standing. Being the slack country, odds are a certain level of complacency has come over you and proper protocol isn't followed as strictly, blah blah blah.

I know, or should I say knew, a guy who died in an avalanche a snowballs throw away from the ski hill boundary rope. was buried while filming his friend hit a jump. this scenario sounds quite similar to that of Pow-wow's.

I also know guys who have been in the backcountry for over a decade without any formal training, and I would trust them over certain friends who just took their AST1 course out there. "training" is not king, having and knowing how to use gear and knowing what you're doing out there is king. In all reality, all I got out of my avi course is learning about the temperature gradient - and considering I don't carry two thermometers with me out there, I haven't even used it in the field. Hell, I've seen morning safety meetings at cat operations that are almost as good as an AST1 course.

14 years ago
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skithesprings
Posts: 9086 - Karma: 1,349
FUCK BEACONS, WHY ARE BACONS SO EXPENSIVE?


Click for larger image

SO DELICIOUS, BUT SO PRICEY.
14 years ago
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Lord.Quasimoto
Posts: 958 - Karma: 33
x2
14 years ago
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Drail
Posts: 14045 - Karma: 10,323
and please don't twist my words - I am not trying to say that people shouldn't take a course. I just feel that, especially on NS, people are putting too much emphasis on taking a course like it's going to take away the risks. It's like sex, the only true way to have safe sex is to not have it in the first place.

learn how to dig a pit, learn about terrain evaluation, learn a proper ski cut, learn how to understand the avalanche report, and the most useful tool of all - your fellow shredders. I learn more about the snowpack and how the mountains are reacting by being out there skiing it and picking my friends brain for their findings.
14 years ago
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ski_ENDUB
Posts: 2535 - Karma: 86
AND WHY IS IT IMPOSSIBLE TO FIND CANADIAN CUT BACON, EXTRA THICK ISN'T THICK ENOUGH!!!!!!!!!!
14 years ago
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.peter
Posts: 1222 - Karma: 63
because you need them, and you need them to work... ALWAYS,
and those avalanche air bags may look funny but they're something like 90% effective so lets not make fun.
14 years ago
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TWoods
Posts: 10014 - Karma: 8,392
amen
14 years ago
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lalalalaura
Posts: 6753 - Karma: 68
analog beacons are only a hundred and fifty bucks... look into an ortovox f1, know how to use it, practice beacon searches a lot, and if you get to a point where you feel the advantages of having a digital, then sell your analog... not actually that expensive when you consider the amount of days you're going to be able to access without having to spend on lift tickets... or rent one from outdoor centres in your area if you dont do that many trips
14 years ago
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tripnip
Posts: 1882 - Karma: 482
point missed. but i still had fun skiing in the back country today with my BEACON all my gear my friends and my dog.

14 years ago
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Drail
Posts: 14045 - Karma: 10,323
my dog's very european. by that, I mean: when it comes to the downhill, she doesn't really like getting a fresh line, she follows one of our tracks down, or just runs down the skin track if it's convenient enough. She's young and will eventually figure it out though. It is a Malamute afterall.
14 years ago
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MRoden
Posts: 753 - Karma: 211
actually human body is worth $45million. /random fact
14 years ago
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POW-WOW
Posts: 1464 - Karma: 40
Fuck Im selling myself for cheap. I can make way more money now each night!
14 years ago
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Fucktown
Posts: 474 - Karma: 22
My life is not worth 10,000,000,000 dollars. Sorry
14 years ago
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tripnip
Posts: 1882 - Karma: 482
i have a welsh springer spaniel, she likes to go really fast down hill but shes small so she has the tendency to sink in deep snow
14 years ago
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powderhound100
Posts: 2510 - Karma: 144
I agree 100%. If you have knowledgable fellow shredders you can definitely learn form them, if not, find a way to learn from knowledgable people, but it a course or anything.
14 years ago
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