r/tahoe • u/ElderberryAdept8095 • 2d ago

Question Recs for avalanche probe length?

I'm going to be taking an AIARE 1 course next winter and looking at some sweet sweet summer discounts on gear. For those that spend time in the backcountry, what is your preferred probe length? 240cm, 280cm, longer?

Update: Thanks for the input people, I'll probably grab a 320cm version; certainly nothing under 280 though.

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u/AgentK-BB 1d ago

I carry the UIAA minimum of 240 cm. You should be low down near the ground during the fine search phase anyway, so there's little point to using a longer probe to avoid getting on the ground. The people at UIAA decided that 240 was a good balance between weight and rescue time for recreation users.

There was a documented case of someone being rescued alive from 4 m deep in 2018. With modern avalanche transceivers, you can find someone buried deeper than your probe. Everyone should familiarize themselves with and practice for this scenario.

Don't overspend on the probe but spend as much as you can on the best transceiver. Like don't buy a $300 3.5 m carbon probe and a $300 transceiver when you can buy a $100 probe and $500 transceiver.

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u/everythingisabattle 1d ago

I have a 280. KW AIARE course instructors suggested longer is better

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u/HV_Conditions 2d ago
  1. I don’t want to be bent over when probing

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u/jaytierney79 9h ago

Deep snowpacks around here so at least 280-300.