- Price: £1,020 / €1,120 / $1,500
- Sizes: S/M, M/L
Why we chose the Black Diamond Jetforce Pro Split Avalanche Airbag 25L Snowboard Helmet: A product that justifies the sizeable price tag. User friendly, durable, lightweight, customisable… and potentially life-saving.
Avalanche airbags have become an increasingly common sighting in the backcountry. Their statistics on avoiding burial in a worst-case scenario are very impressive and, while an airbag will never be a substitute for knowledge and experience in the backcountry, they make for a very reliable add-on to your safety repertoire. A few years back, Black Diamond changed the game with the first all-electric airbag system in the original JetForce 1.0. The Jetforce Pro was new for last year, and with a split specific add-on pack, it caught the attention of our test team this winter.
“While an airbag will never be a substitute for knowledge and experience in the backcountry, they make for a very reliable add-on to your safety repertoire”
So what are some of the specific advantages of havin a pack like this? Well, electric airbag systems come with a few handy tricks up their sleeve, many of which you won’t find in other system.
The big one being having the ability to deploy the pack multiple times in one charge, unlike single use activations with gas canister systems. Now, that’s not an endorsement for anyone getting caught in multiple avalanches in a single outting (you’re doing something very wrong if this is the case), but it does give you the opportunity to practcie deplying the device multiple times from the comfort of your own living room to get well practised in using it – and it won’t cost a penny either.
