Today, I had great time recording a podcast session with folks from AvaTech – the company behind two totally new revolutionary products in the snow safety industry.
The episode will be out in couple of days and will feature more gear talk then just today’s session. But for now, here’s an intro of the cool AvaTech’s products.
AvaTech SP1 snow probe
On September 15, AvaTech revealed the SP1 to the world through the intro video on their YouTube channel. Since then (about 20 days) the video saw almost 30,000 views which I would say is breathtaking since the product has a very specific/niche application.
What SP1 is?
The Sp1 is a probe-like device that “…is designed to help professionals understand the snowpack more quickly, accurately and objectively, and then share that information with the broader mountain community.”
AvaTech’s SP1 proactive snow safety device that reads snowpack structure, slope angle and aspect in seconds and then geo-tags the data, and uploads it real-time onto the AvaNet platform. AvaNet will dramatically increase the amount of data snow professionals can share and analyze, providing a unique geo-spatial database of crowd-sourced snowpack observations. Snow professionals will be able to gather more information and make better decisions with consistent data powered by this proprietary technology developed while at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Finally, professionals will also be able to rapidly upload their own manual snowpack observations with AvaTech’s Snowpit Editor, which features geo-tagging, photo upload and multiple forms of data visualization.
What SP1 isn’t?
The most two important points here are that:
- The SP1 does not replace sound decision making. It only helps to paint the picture and share lots of data in real-time and over time with anyone that chooses to listen.
- It is not an avalanche probe. It is a snow analysis tool.
Future and more details
As I mentioned above, for more insights on this revolutionary product look out for the new SkinTrack podcast episode but in the mean time check out the AvaTech’s website for more details.
Potential plans/possibilities include a device that would be more intended for use by general backcountry skiers and not just professionals. For now, professionals will be relied on as data collectors but really anyone can sign up for data access through an annual subscription to the AvaNet platform.
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