{"id":43033,"date":"2025-11-18T10:40:43","date_gmt":"2025-11-18T16:40:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gearinstitute.com\/?p=43033"},"modified":"2025-11-18T10:40:43","modified_gmt":"2025-11-18T16:40:43","slug":"snow-survival-study-yields-significant-results-for-new-safety-product","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gearinstitute.com\/snow-survival-study-yields-significant-results-for-new-safety-product\/","title":{"rendered":"Snow Survival Study Yields Significant Results for New Safety Product"},"content":{"rendered":"

The winter backcountry boom of the past few decades has resulted in a corresponding golden age of new snow safety products, including avalanche transceivers with improved search capabilities, inflatable airbags, and even state of the art communications systems to help multiple users coordinate their wild mountain travel.<\/p>\n

All of this has helped significantly raise awareness about the importance of training with safety equipment and working with your off-piste companions to maintain a shared sense of out of bounds protocol.<\/p>\n

People are still triggering slides, often with serious consequences, but also with a greater chance of survival.<\/p>\n

That is what makes the recent news out of Bolzano, Italy from avalanche safety gear brand Safeback<\/a> so remarkable. Based on the results of a clinical trial of its SBX avalanche survival system, which have been published in the\u00a0Journal of the American Medical Association<\/a> (JAMA)<\/em>, people using the system can dramatically increase their rescue window after burial.<\/p>\n

Game Changer<\/h3>\n
\"Safeback
Safeback Snow Pro Vest. Photo courtesy of Safeback<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The study, led by Eurac Research\u2019s Institute for Mountain Emergency Medicine, demonstrated that the SBX system can increase survival time fivefold for individuals buried in an avalanche.<\/p>\n

Granted, this is contingent on slide victims not being \u201cmechanically destroyed,\u201d as the avy parlance goes, due to significant trauma. Asphyxiation is the main cause of avalanche deaths, which the SBX system is built to mitigate.<\/p>\n

According to Safeback, the \u201cSBX is a patented, battery-powered air pump system that leverages the natural porosity of snow to circulate fresh, breathable air from the snowpack behind a buried victim\u2019s back to their face via the backpack\u2019s shoulder straps. This continuous airflow delays asphyxia, even in the absence of an air pocket, as demonstrated in the recent study.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSafeback was founded with a goal-zero vision: a world without avalanche fatalities,\u201d said Tor Berge, Safeback\u2019s CEO and Co-founder. \u201cBy supplying burial victims with a continuous supply of fresh air, SBX helps buried victims stay alive longer, giving rescuers more time to reach them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know survival depends on more than one tool,\u201d Berge said. \u201cThat\u2019s why SBX stands alongside continued education, advanced prevention methods, and cutting-edge rescue technologies.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Study<\/h3>\n

Conducted in 2023 with complete independence from Safeback, the study involved 24 volunteers who were buried face-down under 50 cm of avalanche-density snow, which in itself sounds pretty scary.<\/p>\n

Participants were randomly assigned to either a control group, using placebo SBX devices, or an SBX group, equipped with functioning SBX devices.<\/p>\n

Key Findings from the JAMA<\/em>-Published Study report that in the control group,\u00a0four of 12 volunteers requested the experiment be stopped due to distress, and seven had their burials terminated after a median of 6.4 minutes due to oxygen saturation falling below 80 percent, as required by protocol.<\/p>\n

In the SBX group, no participant buried with a functioning SBX device had their experiment stopped due to low oxygen saturation. Their median burial time was 35 minutes, reaching the maximum duration planned for the experiment.<\/p>\n

Researchers noted, \u201cIn a real-life situation, emergency services or the victim\u2019s companions would likely have had more than five times as much time to respond (with SBX), and potential cardiac arrest would occur much later.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read the JAMA study results here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Gear<\/h3>\n
\"\"
Photo courtesy of Safeback<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Designed for simplicity and reliability, the lightweight SBX unit (520g) features only three moving parts, occupying approximately 0.75L in a compatible backpack’s main compartment.<\/p>\n

Activated by a T-shaped handle, similar to avalanche airbags, SBX operates for 90 minutes at -22\u00b0F \/ -30\u00b0C using readily available Energizer Ultimate Lithium AA batteries.<\/p>\n

SBX is integrated into avalanche backpacks developed by leading outdoor brands. For the clinical trial, volunteers wore the Snow Pro Vest 8L from Db.<\/p>\n

Currently, SBX-equipped backpacks are available from Db, Raide Research, and Bergans of Norway through specialty retailers. In February 2023, Safeback<\/a> was granted a US Patent for the SBX Avalanche Survival System.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The winter backcountry boom of the past few decades has resulted in a corresponding golden age of new snow safety products, including avalanche transceivers with improved search capabilities, inflatable airbags, and even state of the art communications systems to help multiple users coordinate their wild mountain travel. All of this has helped significantly raise awareness Read more ›<\/a>","protected":false},"author":303,"featured_media":43037,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3235,2433,3484],"class_list":["post-43033","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ski-snow-backpacks","category-ski-snow","category-ski-touring-backpacks","article_category-fresh-gear","article_category-gear-columns","article_category-gear-news","article_category-home-page"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nSnow Survival Study Yields Significant Results for New Safety Product | Gear Institute<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/gearinstitute.com\/snow-survival-study-yields-significant-results-for-new-safety-product\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Snow Survival Study Yields Significant Results for New Safety Product | Gear Institute\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The winter backcountry boom of the past few decades has resulted in a corresponding golden age of new snow safety products, including avalanche transceivers with improved search capabilities, inflatable airbags, and even state of the art communications systems to help multiple users coordinate their wild mountain travel. 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