Hopkinton, NH – Following what an Ortovox spokesperson calls “nasty rumors” that the snow safety company wouldn’t make its own shipping commitment, the new 3+ avalanche beacon is now arriving on store shelves nationwide right on schedule.nLike other three-antenna beacons, the 3+ is designed to eliminate spikes and dropouts as you near the buried victim by providing a third antenna to aid in vertical location. The 3+, however, takes the old adage to give your best beacon to your buddy one step further as it’s the first three-antenna device with what the company is calling “Smart Antenna Technology,” an intelligent positioning system that analyzes the position of is two primary antennas and automatically switches to the most optimal transmission. In short, the 3+ makes all other avalanche beacons more efficient at finding you.

“There’s never been an avalanche beacon like this,” says Ortovox USA CEO Marcus Peterson. “A lot of energy and investment has been spent making transceivers get better at searching. The 3+ is undoubtedly the best at being found.”

For search mode, a large real-time LCD display includes a directional arrow and distance to the victim to help hone your rescue quickly and intuitively. The display deck also allows for a visual overview of multi-burial situations that allows the rescuer to flag a victim once they are found, and multiple-burial signal masking/separating software derived from the company’s clamshell-style S1 beacon. Additional features include rubberized housing for added protection, lighted display for night searches, switchover in case of a follow-up avalanche, optimized search acoustics and visual representation of victim proximity (in addition to metric distance).

The 3+ retails for $349 and is hitting both online and brick and mortar retailers now. First Tracks!! Online Media hopes to get our hands on a demo unit this fall for an upcoming test and review. For more information visit www.ortovox.com