The Safeback SBX avalanche survival system hasn’t even formally hit the market, and it’s already received an ISPO innovation award and is up for an additional innovation award on the Outdoor Retailer Snow Show. We bought our fingers on the system to take a detailed first have a look at the brand new know-how.
When an individual is buried in an avalanche, a countdown begins. They solely have 10 minutes earlier than they begin to run out of air. A examine from Canada discovered that after 35 minutes, they solely have a ten% likelihood of survival, with nearly sure mind harm.
It’s why you’re speculated to cup your fingers over your nostril and mouth if you end up in that terrifying scenario. It creates a small pocket of air which you can breathe from. And hopefully, that would prolong your probabilities of survival — and if you’re underneath snow, each second counts.
Safeback is taking that idea to the subsequent degree. After years of innovation and design, Safeback has developed a system that may prolong a buried individual’s survival time underneath snow as much as 90-160 minutes. It’s a system that basically turns your whole backpack into an air pocket to breathe from.
“Five years of advanced research and development ended up with an elegant and simple solution,” William Sherman, the CMO of Safeback, instructed GearJunkie. “[It’s] an air pump in your backpack that is supplying your breathable air.”
We related with Sherman to get our fingers on the Safeback SBX system and see the brand new know-how for ourselves. And from what we discovered, this may very well be a significantly disruptive gadget on the planet of backcountry snowboarding.
It’s not hyperbole to say that this method may save tons of, possibly even hundreds, of lives.
Hands-on with Safeback SBX
GearJunkie coated Safeback’s 2022 ISPO innovation award and its latest partnerships with Db and Bergans. It’s linking up with these manufacturers to design backpacks and vests that incorporate the Safeback SBX system.
But this was the primary time we’d interacted with the gadget in individual. And when Sherman opened the field and pulled the Safeback SBX out, we have been instantly stunned by its dimension and weight. It’s small. And in whole, with the batteries, it weighs simply 513 grams, or 18 ounces.
Two hoses prolong from the battery pack and air consumption. Those will run up via the shoulder straps of considered one of Bergens’ baggage or DB’s vests. The consumption stays within the bag on the wearer’s again. It pumps air in from the encircling snow to your backpack, up the tubes, and out of the vents on the shoulder straps.
“In open air, it’s delivering over 100L [of air] a minute. And so under snow, we can deliver 17L per minute,” Sherman defined.
According to Discovery Health, the typical grownup breathes about 7 or 8L of air per minute. So the Safeback SBX will present a more-than-adequate provide of air to a buried sufferer.
Safeback SBX Battery Life
But it isn’t sufficient to pump air from the snow round a person’s physique to their face to allow them to breathe it. The system additionally had to have the ability to perform for so long as attainable.
That’s why Safeback SBX makes use of Energizer Ultimate Lithium batteries. Sherman defined that these particular batteries function very properly in chilly temperatures. He mentioned Safeback examined a number of different lithium batteries, however the Energizer’s lasted the longest. And that’s actually what they wished.
“At -22 degrees Fahrenheit, we can deliver air for 90 minutes,” Sherman mentioned. “So at a regular temperature like 15 degrees, we’re delivering [air] for 2 hours. And then at 30 [degrees], it’s 160 minutes. So it’s a huge, huge amount of time as a result of these batteries.”
When you flip the Safeback SBX on, it at all times runs a system examine. You’ll hear the followers buzzing, and a blinking inexperienced mild flashes on prime. The system begins checking its voltage, checking the software program and the electronics, and ensuring the airways aren’t blocked. You can manually run the identical take a look at by merely holding down the gadget’s button, Sherman demonstrated.
Then, you’re able to hit the backcountry slopes.
The Db Vest and Sage Kotsenburg
While Safeback partnered with each Bergan and Db to design baggage and vests that accommodate the Safeback SBX system, solely Db’s vest will likely be accessible within the U.S. It’s a cool piece of backcountry gear, with 8L of storage within the again and two monster entrance panel pockets.
The vest has a compartment for the Safeback SBX. And the shoulder straps have a mesh prime in order that the hoses can simply pump air out of them. An orange activation deal with extends from the left shoulder strap, and when pulled, the Safeback SBX system activates.
Sherman says they future-proofed these activation handles, so they may simply be built-in with an avalanche airbag. Then, you’d solely have to tug one wire, and two avalanche rescue techniques would interact. Sherman wouldn’t expose particulars, however he did say that Safeback is already in discussions with airbag manufacturers who wish to be part of forces.
“It [will be] the world’s most advanced avalanche backpack,” he mentioned. “That’s totally coming.”
Until then, the Db vest must suffice for US backcountry skiers. That’s okay as a result of collectively, this vest and the built-in Safeback SBX system are making a leap ahead in avalanche rescue innovation on their very own. Even with out an airbag, it’s nonetheless protected to name Db’s Safeback avi vest one of the vital superior avalanche backpacks ever designed.
It’s why Sage Kotsenburg has signed on with the mission. He’ll be sporting the Db vest this season — he trusts the system. And if there’s something that Safeback SBX needs to determine proper out of the gate, it’s belief.
“We’re going to be doing all we can to get this in the hands of the right people this season so that there is a base level of trust for the work that we put into the products up to now,” mentioned Sherman. “Trust is the most important thing in this product.”
A Different Promise From Avi Airbags
The thought behind an avi airbag is easy and efficient — however removed from good. You pull an activation deal with in your backpack, and a giant balloon erupts out of it. Because snow is water, and air floats in water, the hope is that the airbag makes a skier or rider float to the highest as an alternative of getting buried underneath snow.
Airbag techniques like ABS have been round because the ’90s. And they’ve saved numerous lives. According to a 2014 examine revealed within the journal Resuscitation, the likelihood of being critically buried is 47% with out an airbag and decreased to twenty% with an airbag.
But the oldsters at Safeback are fast to differentiate a notable distinction in what they promise customers. Avi baggage supply confidence that the person received’t get buried, received’t need to be saved, and received’t actually even want their beacon as a result of they received’t go underneath. Hopefully.
Safeback SBX, in contrast, is in alignment with preserving your beacon on “send” mode at all times. It can’t promise to cease you from being buried (and realistically, neither can an airbag system). But it could actually present 90-160 minutes of respiration time. And usually, that may prolong survival exponentially.
Safeback SBX: A 2023/24 Product
Unfortunately for backcountry skiers and riders, Sherman says the pre-sale for Safeback’s Db vest received’t be till the spring of 2023 (March or April). So folks received’t actually get to strive the system out till subsequent season.
Both the Safeback SBX system and the Safeback vest are up for innovation awards on the Outdoor Retailer present subsequent week. And Sherman has his fingers crossed that they may additionally win Product of the Year.
Regardless of awards, Safeback SBX has rather a lot within the works. It’s already trying to broaden, placing its survival system into extra baggage made by extra manufacturers. The model can be participating in a whole lot of analysis that he wouldn’t go on file with.
There’s a cause why the Safeback SBX system is already making waves and hasn’t even hit the market but. This know-how has a whole lot of potential to save lots of folks’s lives. And with the exploding reputation of backcountry snowboarding, gadgets like this are going to be more and more vital.
