At Babes Outside, we have a combined 25 years of experience using avalanche beacons both in a professional and recreational setting. As backcountry skiers, we consider an avalanche beacon an essential tool in our daily kit. Choosing the right beacon can be overwhelming, and we hope this outline helps you narrow it down so you can get back out into the mountains!

How Avalanche Beacons Work

Avalanche beacons are radio transceivers. A beacon in send mode emits three-dimensional flux lines, which a beacon in search mode can pick up, helping direct the rescuer to where the signal is strongest. After pinpointing the strongest signal, a rescuer or team will go on to use their probe and shovel to locate and extract a buried victim.

Criteria for Choosing the Best Avalanche Beacon for Backcountry Skiing

1. Ease Of Use

Your beacon should be intuitive to use. Working with your beacon is a highly perishable skill, and let’s be honest, most of us are not hitting the beacon park every Friday. This means your beacon should be easy to operate and offer clear prompting in case you’re a little rusty on your skills.

2. Reliability

Something as simple as a poorly designed toggle can make your beacon ineffective. Before purchasing a beacon, it’s worth a quick search about any majors recalls on that model in previous years. After purchasing, be proactive about monitoring recalls or complaints about your beacon, and send it in for repairs if necessary.

3. Range, Speed, and Accuracy

These criteria relate to your beacon itself, and are why it is so important to use a newer beacon. At Babes Outside, we require our guest’s avalanche beacons to be no more than 7 years old, as beacon technology improves year after year. A range of 50-70m is the industry standard. Accuracy and speed vary by beacon type—we’ll get more into that in our reviews.

Where To Buy

We love finding a steal on Facebook marketplace as much as the next girl, but for a piece of technology as critical as your beacon, we highly recommend purchasing new, either online or at your local ski shop. A beacon that has been dropped or had the housing damage needs to be replaced, and you have no way to really know the history of secondhand equipment.

Now, onto the avalanche beacons!

Our favorite for most users: Backcountry Access Tracker 4

The Backcountry Access Tracker 4 comes out consistently as the fastest beacon on the market. It is a simple and reliable beacon that performs really well in your most likely scenario, a single burial. Its high-speed, accurate processor ensures quick and precise signal detection, and the display is intuitive.

The rubberized housing enhances durability, though the beacon is still light and compact. Its ergonomic design is complemented by a glove-friendly thumb toggle, enabling easy transitions between transmit, search, and off modes—even in freezing temperatures or high-stress environments.

The downside to this beacon is its limited multiple burial functionality. Locating more than two signals involves toggling through available data and understanding specific symbols, which can be unintuitive for inexperienced users, and requires practice.

We’ve used this beacon ourselves in a recreational setting, and loved the speed and accuracy.

The Backcountry Access Tracker 4 is our favorite for most recreational users because it is fast, reliable, and easy to use. It requires extra skill for multiple burials, though regular practice can mitigate this drawback, making it a durable, efficient, and dependable tool for avalanche safety.

Our favorite for complete beginners: Ortovox Diract Voice

The Ortovox Diract Voice stands out in the field for its innovative voice-guided search. Instead of simple tones, this beacon actually talks to the user, directing them in their search with clear commands such as “run straight” and “search for the smallest value”. For a complete beginner, this feature is super handy, eliminating a lot of the stress of searching for a buried victim.

In addition to the voice command features, the Ortovox Diract Voice features a covered on/off button instead of the usual sliding toggle. This beacon is a little taller than the Backcountry Acces Tracker 4, but slimmer, so it still feels compact.

While we think the voice commands could be really helpful for new users or users that don’t practice with their beacon often, the feature may become irrelevant as you get more experience. Additionally, this beacon has a shorter range and less precise fine search ability than competitors. It has a rechargeable battery, meaning you can’t carry backup batteries with you.

This beacon can flag up to four signals on its main display, although we found their multiple burial function a bit slower to competitors.

While we haven’t practiced with the beacon ourselves, we’ve seen students at avalanche safety courses using it and thought the voice commands were a practical solution for beginners.

If you’re a total newbie and want some handholding while you get your footing, the Ortovox Diract Voice could be the right fit for you. We’re excited to see how the technology advances and improves. Other, more traditional avalanche beacons to consider for beginners are the Backcountry Access Tracker S, an entry level beacon with an extremely fast processor, or the Mammut Barryvox, which is slightly more affordable but comparable in features to the Backcountry Access Tracker 4.

Our recommendation for avalanche professionals: Mammut Barryvox S

No discussion of avalanche beacons would be complete without the Mammut Barryvox S. Developed by electronics engineer and alpinist Felix Meyer, this beacon sets the standard for avalanche professionals.

Users can switch to advanced settings mode to customize how they would like their beacon to function, including turning the beacon to analog mode. The features are highly customizable to a users preferences and needs.

The Mammut Barryvox S shines in multiple burials, with solid flagging features and the ability to return to a previously flagged victim. It has a reported range for 70m, one of the highest on the market, although in practice we found it’s working range more like 50-60m.

Caroline and Mia both use the Mammut Barryvox S. As avalanche professionals, we’ve trained hard with this beacon, and taken the time to set up the advanced settings to exactly what we want. We really enjoy this beacon but it takes a lot of practice to make the advanced features useful.

We don’t recommend this beacon for most recreational users. It has a slower processor than some competitors, and the features are overkill for non-professionals. An advanced user not working in the industry should consider the Backcountry Access Tracker 4, Mammut Barryvox, or ARVA BT Neo.

Our ULTIMATE top favorite: Practice

Whatever beacon you choose to use, the most important thing you can do is practice. This will allow you to understand the nuances of your device and how it performs under different conditions. You can learn how interference, like cell phones, affects your beacon and identify the best place to carry your beacon on your body. Practicing search drills with your beacon will automize your body movements, which is critical in a high stress situation. Buying an avalanche beacon is an important step, but learning how to use it to save a buried victim is paramount.

In our March 2025 Women’s Backcountry Ski Trip in Oregon, we’ll host a backcountry skills clinic, and take some time to practice with our beacons. We love to make beacon practice fun! If you’re into backcountry skiing, you should come join us in March!

Our 3 Favorite Avalanche Beacons for Backcountry Skiing