The Black Diamond Set Guide BT includes the Guide BT beacon, Evac 7 shovel, and Quickdraw Tour 320 probenecessary safety tools designed for serious backcountry travelers and mountain professionals alike.
First up in the package is the Guide BT beacon. It's built in a housing that has soft contact points to feel better and more secure in your hand when you're conducting a search, and its three-antenna design eliminates spikes, or the scenario where your beacon incorrectly points to a location that is isn't near your victim. An impressive 60-meter circular range means you can pick up your victim's signal from farther away and get on track faster, helping to save precious time, and if the slide has buried multiple victims you can use the mark and scan function to locate multiple victims, and mark each as you find them so your partner can start digging for maximum efficiency. The Guide is equipped with a continuous carry mode, too, which can locate analog beacons in the event that the victim was carrying one.
To ensure that the Guide is always working properly before you head out into the backcountry, it offers a self-check function that takes a diagnoses of the beacon, while its Bluetooth capability allows you to pair it with your smartphone so you can manage settings and check for software updates. It can also pick up a TX600 signal, which is a beacon that operates on a different frequency, designed for dogs, and is compatible with iProbe for more extensive search capabilities.
The Evac 7 boasts the ability to be used as a traditional shovel, or configured as a hoe to faster and more efficiently move large amounts of snow in an emergency. Its large blade makes quick work out of snow pits, and the extendable shaft and D-shaped handle minimize back and hand fatigue, even after your third pit of the day.
Last, but not least, the Quickdraw Tour 320 is a durable probe that's long enough for snow study in areas where there's a deep snowpack, and easy to deploy in an emergency. Its no-slip grip feels secure in your hands, even when your gloves are wet, and the oversized tip elevates probing sensitivity by creating a hole in the snow that's larger than the probe shaft. And, when you're trying to take snowpack depth measurement, you'll appreciate the clear one centimeter markings that run the length of the probe.
