RESQSKI: Transceivers For Your Skis

RESQSKI is an English company that is marketing a very interesting product for powder skiers. They make an electronic ski finder that helps you find your lost skis when you crash and they are buried in snow. If you’ve ever spent precious hours on a powder day searching for a lost ski, or lost an expensive ski altogether, you know how valuable and innovative this is.

The system consists of two small ski tags that you stick on your skis, and transceiver that you carry in your pocket or backpack. The tags are about the size of the head of a smallish watch, and stick on your skis the way a Go Pro mount does. I’ve used two different pairs for a year each, and haven’t had problems with them coming off. The batteries last a really long time, so you can just turn them on at the beginning of the season and turn them off at the end.They use watch batteries, so are easy and cheap to change.

The transceiver is the size of a credit card, but thicker. I put it in the bottom of my backpack with my first aid and repair kit. It works like an analog beacon: flashing lights go from red to green as you get closer to your ski, and beeps get louder and more frequent. You can assign up to four different ski tags to your transceiver, and search for each separately, depending on what ski you lost.

I began using the RESQSKI system two years ago, when I lost a ski on a powder day in Japan, and never found it again. Since then, I’ve only had one occasion to use them.

I walked out of my ski on a very deep day in Hakuba last year, on a steep slope with trees. There was so much snow and sluff I immediately pulled out the ski finder without bothering to dig around or probe first.

I had not really practiced with the device, and do not have experience with analog beacons, but found the interface easy to use and understand.

I was able to find my ski within a couple minutes. It was actually buried about 4 to 5 feet directly below me. I think the analog signal with light and sound indicators was particularly helpful in this case. Because I was working very much in a three dimensional space, warmer/colder indications were more helpful than a directional and distance read out.

A full RESQSKI kit (transceiver, 2 homing tags, 2 base tags) costs about $130 shipped to the USA. So, obviously it’s not a cheap product. But, compared to the price of skis and bindings, which could be upwards of $2,000 these days, what’s $130 more to keep from losing one?

Read more and purchase RESQSKI Ski Finders here.