Barryvox Avalanche Beacon

The Mammut Barryvox is a digital three-antenna avalanche beacon, the transceiver you wear under your jacket every time you step into avalanche terrain. It searches a strip 70 m wide, shows you direction and distance on a backlit display, and keeps the controls simple enough to use with cold hands in thick gloves.

Who it's for

Ski tourers, splitboarders and winter mountaineers heading beyond the resort boundary: the Main Range out of Thredbo and Guthega, Mount Bogong and Feathertop, the club fields and glaciers across the Tasman. If you are putting together a first backcountry kit, or you want a beacon the whole group can pick up and understand in a minute, this is the Barryvox we would hand you.

Every person in the party wears one. It travels with a probe and a shovel, and the three together are the kit.

How it performs in a search

• Digital three-antenna device
• Effective search strip width: 70 m
• Digital receiving range: 70 m
• Reverse direction function to stop you walking 180 degrees the wrong way
• Shows an overview of multiple burials, with marking of a located subject

A wide search strip means fewer passes across the debris, and fewer passes means you reach the signal sooner. Once you have it, the arrow and the distance reading take you in, and a sequence of tones guides you too, so your eyes can stay on the snow in front of you.

Using it under pressure

The housing is impact-proof and break-proof, and the controls are made for gloved hands. The display is backlit and stays readable through polarised sunglasses, so there is no squinting at a washed-out screen on a bright day above the tree line.

Auto Revert looks after the searcher. If you have not moved for 4 minutes while in search mode, the Barryvox assumes a second avalanche has caught you and switches itself back to SEND, so the rest of the party can find you.

Certification and standards

The Barryvox sends on 457 kHz, the frequency avalanche transceivers share, so it works with the beacons the rest of your group is carrying, whatever the brand. Mammut classifies the Barryvox as personal protective equipment: read the user manual before your first day out with it.

Maintenance and checks

The Barryvox runs on three AAA alkaline batteries, included in the box, and gives around 300 hours in SEND. It tests its send and search functions each time you switch it on and keeps checking transmission and battery while you tour. Operating temperature is -25 °C to +45 °C.

At the trailhead, run the group check: it confirms that every beacon in the party is transmitting properly before anyone drops in. The software can be updated, and the W-Link channel lets a club or guiding outfit manage a fleet of devices.

At 210 g and 115 x 67 x 27 mm, it sits flat against your chest in the carrying system.