13623782:soup said:
			
		
	
	
		
		
			care to elaborate on the arcteryx bag being "better, safer, and more practical" than the jetforce bag?  the jetforce seems like a bomber product aside from the hardware hiccup they had late last year.
and an in depth airbag market write up would be greatly appreciated.
		
		
	 
I talked to engineers from all airbag systems this year. Its always difficult to get through the marketing blabla and spitting on other brands systems but when you hear it al and take a step back this is whats going on in a nutshell:
The engineer from Arva designed the Vario system and was stupid enough to hand it over to ABS. They worked together on good terms for a few years but that relation is now over. Both parties needed to come with something new. The Arva system has some great features and is smart designed but IMHO its not a finished product yet but only because some thing look weird. ABS jumped on the surface over volume wagon. All engineers I talked to said that there is something to say about that, in a good way. But ABS executing is stupid. Their airbags have a bigger flat surface next year. More flat airbags. The problem is that they fold. Their current system also does this a bit but its less problematic because the airbags are big. Their new airbags are so thin and wide and not well attached to the backpack that they fold very easy. In my opinion they ruined their product and it might not even be safe. Real proper testing was not possible because the breakup with Arva. Something new had to be designed at both companies real fast with a meh result. I would stay away from both next year.
Ortovox played smart. They worked with ABS systems in their backpacks and quietly worked on their own system. In short: its light, its small, it has a normal airbag and better designed backpacks around it than their current. Solid job, but he its still a new system..?
Scott and Alpride, solid system nothing really new only nicer backpacks. Still light enough to be competitive.
Mammut: everything is lighter and a bit smaller next year. Nothing really fancy but still really solid system.
Than the Jetforce... BD built it quick when there were rumors about arcteryx working on something with a batery. I heard from different sides and parties BD asked to work together but arcteryx declined. BD than said ok we built something ourselfs quicker to be the first. They achieved that by working with existing components. They use a fan instead of an impeller like arcteryx. Again different engineer from different airbag systems told me a fan is not safe enough. Why? Because it would be not powerfull enough to fill the airbag when something is blocking the airbag... likeee snow.....in an avalanche.... I will try to test this soon... The arcteryx engineer told me they tried a fan at first..but it was in no way strong enough and they quickly went to an impeller...
Than their is the Jetforce backpacks + system. Its heavy and you have very little room left for your gear..all that for 1000 euros + it might not be strong enough to deploy when in an avalanche... I wouldt buy it, I wouldnt even use it when someone would give me one..
Than the arcteryx. First this: 1600 euros and only 2000 available next years.. They took their time with development...almost  8 years I believe... No it does not deflate after 3 mins to create an airpocket, but BD has zero test results of that working in real life.. But whats really impressive is that the system is small and even with the smaller size backpack you can actually get shit in the backpack... Offcourse its an arcteryx backpack with all kinds of nice features etc. What they claim about the system is that they can spray water over the system, keep it at minus 30 celcius for a week and after that it still deploys without any problems, 8-10 times... even if it can do half its impressive...
Yeah I'm stoked about the arcteryx, but only because I felt that all engineers from all brands and systems hinted its a solid system and they were impressed. That plus the fact its pretty light and you get a real backpack around it.. Ofcourse its new so you never know but to me it looks solid.
I have zero interests or collaboration with any of these brands. Its just a bunch of stories I heard from all engineers and other brand people i have spoken to on ISPO.
Maybe I will do an indepth preview of all systems and backpacks later but I'm way to busy for that now.. Plus side to the airbag market is that new things are coming and maybe prices go down a bit but dont expect to much.. downside is that systems are designed, built and brought to the market to fast...