COLORADO SPRINGS – Before heading into the backcountry this winter, make sure to check your avalanche beacon.
Ortovox is recalling about 20,000 of its 3+ avalanche beacons in every color. The affected models are running on the 2.1 software version and are in need of a upgrade.
“What the issue is, is it’s not allowing the transceiver to actually transmit properly, so people are no being found,” said Shane Leva with Mountain Chalet.
To find out if your beacon is affected, on startup if it says software version 2.1, yours is out of date.
Mountain Chalet says you can take your device to their store and they can check it for you. If you are in need of an update, they will also be able to take your beacon and send it off for a software upgrade. So far they’ve had about 20 devices sent in.
“This is kind of a quick reality check of the beginning of the season,” Leva said. “You need to be going through your gear making sure everything is stored properly, there’s no obvious software issues or maintenance issues that need to be taken care of.”
