Mammut

Element Barryvox Beacon

Sadly, the technology to simply particle-beam you out of harm's way on the mountain doesn't exist yet, but Mammut offers the next best thing: the Element Barryvox Avalanche Beacon. The Element is the little brother of Mammut's famed Pulse beacon, and while it can't break down your cellular structure and reassemble you in safety, it does have a 50m search range and three digital antennas designed to make locating avalanche victims as easy as possible. It's also super intuitive and easy to use, with a one-button interface that eliminates confusion, audio cues, and a symbolic LCD display that shows and marks multiple burials (Another cool feature: there's an unmistakeable "U-Turn" signal that pops up if you're following a flux line in the wrong direction.)

If a signal hasn't been received for eight minutes, the Element will revert to send, eliminating the chance that you forget to switch your beacon back to the appropriate mode. Every time you switch it on, it performs an automatic self-check, and also gives you option to perform a group check to make sure your companion's beacons are working properly. It's light, too, weighing just over seven ounces with batteries, so you won't feel like you have a computer strapped to your chest, a benefit that everyone from beginners to crusty vets can appreciate.