By: randosteve|Posted on: March 15, 2011|Posted in: Avalanche Safety, Gear, Gear Reviews, Trip Planning | 10 comments
I like to wear my transceiver on the front of my torso and away
from my arms, backpack straps and jacket pockets.
Like many of you (I think), I wear an avalanche transceiver when skiing in the backcountry. (My personal favorite is an Ortovox S1.) Most transceivers come with a decent carrying case and harness system that goes over your neck and shoulder, and has a strap that clips around your waist. Although these harnesses do keep your transceiver nice and securely close to your body, I feel like sometimes they can slowly creep or migrate to the side of your body. If you have a long torso (or beer belly?), this is often no big deal. But, if you have a short torso like me, it can be kind of awkward in that the transceiver bumps up against your backpack shoulder strap and waist belt, adds bulk to one side of your body which can affect arm movement and also interfere with the use of your jacket pocket on the same side. It’s annoying to me sometimes, but if you use your head, you can wear your transceiver in a way so this doesn’t happen.
I know some people ditch transceiver harnesses altogether, opting to put their beacons in a pant or jacket pocket, or even worse, their backpack. This can be dangerous because pockets can mysteriously be left open (or open on their own) sometimes, allowing a transceiver to fall out. It can also create more futzing, or make you transceiver harder to access when you need to remove or add layers. Also (though maybe unlikely?), jackets, pants and backpacks can be ripped off your body when you are caught in an avalanche. This practice also scares me a little because the transceiver isn’t tethered to your body at all and can easily fall out of your hand when you are speedily negotiating an avalanche debris pile when searching for you bud, or even be pulled from your grip if you are hit with a secondary slide. For this reason alone, I like to use the harness that comes with avalanche transceivers, but in a way that limits the movement of it to the side of my body.
Thread your avalanche transceiver’s waist-belt under one of your pant suspender straps…
One way to avoid this so-called transceiver creep, is to put one of the loops of the harness around your neck and just clip the other strap around your waist. This works fine if you are wearing a base or mid-layer that has a high collar, like a zip-neck or turtleneck. (Do people still wear turtlenecks?) The majority of the time though, I wear a t-shirt without a tall collar under my jacket, and the strap of the transceiver can rub against my neck and/or deltoids, and often be irritating and uncomfortable.
…and then through the other side.
Another way to avoid transceiver creep, and the way I personally roll, is to put one arm and your head through the neck strap and then weave the waist strap through the suspenders of your pants in a way so that it holds the transceiver in place and restricts it from 
moving to one side. Obviously one needs to have pants with suspenders to do this, but I find that I prefer pants with suspenders when backcountry skiing the majority of the time anyway. This technique keeps the transceiver centered on my body so that it is easy to locate, doesn’t restrict the use of my jacket pockets and is comfortable. You may need to experiment with your own transceiver harness and pant suspenders to find a way that works with your own system, but try it out next time you are shredding the backcountry, I think you will find that it works great.
i got some new pants (OR Trailbreaker) that have a pocket specifically designed for a beacon. it has a mesh liner inside the pocket to secure the beacon in the event the zipper were accidentally left open. it also has a clip inside the pocket so the beacon will stay securely attached to your pants when you go from beacon search to probing or digging. i used this new system for the first time over the weekend (skiing the dike snowfield on saturday!) and i really liked it. i always used to be readjusting my harness to keep it from wandering off to the side and didn’t like feel of the strap around the neck when skinning in a t-shirt. if i’m caught in an avy that rips my pants off i don’t like my chances of survival…beacon or no beacon. i don’t think i’ll be going back to the harness system.
But if my beacon is in front of my body and easily accessable where am I going to keep my avalanche bacon?
On a serious note I have seen folks what have their beacons teathered to their pants pockets like jay describes that work as well as the harness. That said my harness is comfy, doesnt creep, and I feel naked skiing without it so Ill stick with what I got.
Kinda looks like you’ve had a few beers yourself. Pants pocket is becoming more acceptable and my first choice after breaking ribs and the beacon following my dumb ass move off a cornice in a whiteout. The beacon is attached to a length of cord and my bad ass RAINE belt. It’s not perfect but it works and is easy to get to with my jacket and pack on.
ha! excuse me…does this transceiver make me look fat? 🙂 (i thought the same things while i was editing these photos…but i think it’s just the camera angle.)
i’m pretty sure putting my transceiver in a pants pocket would drive me nuts. seems like it would bounce around in a thigh pocket and just be in the way in any other pocket.
I have never thought of wearing it any other spot but on my torso. It’s kinda where it belongs isn’t it? I guess I could wad it up and put it in my pocket… or better yet my backpack! Then someone can find that and not me.
Jason : kinda where it belongs? The Pieps user manual actually suggests a pants pocket as an alternative to the chest harness. But what would they know, eh?
Steve : thigh pocket would drive me nuts too, but the back pocket works well for me – the beacon has a slight curve which lets it sit comfortably against my butt, and the back pocket on my Mammuts is high enough that I don’t sit on the beacon when I sit down. I run some shock cord from the beacon to a suspender/belt loop in the pants – a backup if the pocket opens, and I can search with the stretchy cord attached – no fear of dropping it.
As far as getting it ripped off in a secondary slide, once you take the beacon out of the harness to search you’re in the same boat – relying on whatever cord attaches the beacon to the harness.
Just curious Steve, why do you choose suspenders over a belt? I’ve thought about doing the same.
mark…i like suspenders becasue i think they work better at keeping my pants up, as well as my base layers tucked into my pants, and don’t add bulk or weird bumps where i have my pack waistbelt. granted most of the arc’teryx pants i own also include a low profile webbing belt, but i truly rely on the suspenders to keep my pants up instead.
Yea I’ve considered it more because I feel like a belt somewhat restricts my abdomen from its full range of breathing motion. But then again the waist belt on a pack kinda does that anyway.
I’ve always thought having the transceiver on my chest made more sense than in a pants pocket. My reasoning is that I might as well put the transceiver in a location where if it gets hit hard enough to break the beacon it’s the most likely to kill me anyway.