Carbon fiber probes and new ortovox PFA ??

i gots questions, maybe someone has answers?

I know there are mixed feelings on CF probes, but i'm wondering if anyone has yet to break one, or know of one breaking? and was it from stress or just being too cold?

Also....one would assume a company has done plenty of R&D and fancy engineering to make sure a CF probe can stand the test of time (hopefully) and hold up in cold temps, but what exactly is being done? (i.e. in another thread someone mentioned that there is an extra protective layer around the carbon fiber to prevent fractures and the like)

AND....does anyone have experience or reviews of the new ortovox PFA system? my impressions from throwing them together here at work (in the studio before shooting pics of them), were favorable. granted i had a demon snow probe in here at the same time for comparison and that thing seemed like nothing more than an old tent pole. The PFA seemed to go together super super fast both in terms of all pieces pulling together and the locking mechanism... all really fast and easy. So I'm thinking of replacing my current probe, but figure it's always a good idea to see if anyone has had any adverse experiences (i.e. the locking mechanism not working so great after repeated use, the cord not holding up, etc). I tried searching the rest of the interweb for reviews but didn't have much luck. so i turn to the collective.

thanks in advance for any insight

I've used my BD CF probe (which is 265cm in reality) enough in exercises in 3 years that the brass coating has worn off the tip... it seems quite sturdy and I am not kind to my gear.

The only problem was during one exercise the knot in the kevlar tension cord came a little loose causing the tip to loosen a bit, however the probe remained functional enough that the guy who had borrowed if from me was the one that found the buried pack his probe line was searching for.

CF probes should only experience loading onthe axis in which they are strongest... and CF is strong. Besides being light, they have a bonus of being less likely to freeze to the snow and can be stronger at thinner diameters than hollow metal probes. On the minus side minor damage would be more likely to greatly weaken it where hte same might not phase metal. I'm just speculating btw...

What is the Ortovox PFA system?

PFA is ortovox's "Patented Flash Assembly"

(pics on the bc.com: http://www.backcountry.com/store/ORT...ml?id=rvAz32Iv)

like BD's quickdraw, or life link's auto lock, and tapered section connectors

I just took a BD 240 Carbon probe back yesterday as the carbon had cracked at the join point on the bottom of the top tube. I had only practiced with it for 2 months.

I exchanged it for a G3 320.

I know, it's an old thread... but I got an Ortovox PFA carbon probe for xmas, just tried it out in the str8line camp this weekend.

First time out of the bag - the pull-handle ripped off of the kevlar tension cord when I yanked it to assemble the probe. The cord looked like it was just glued into the plastic handle. terrible :nonono2:

Sure that's easy to fix - I ended up just tying a loop in the cord and pulling that to assemble the probe - but that destroys my confidence in the probe's quality. I'm gonna return it and get something else.

It seems sometimes like I dig pits all day, every day - and I'm talking pits to ground. The guys at ortovox gave me a PFA carbon probe at the beginging of the season and I have yet to have any problems with it. It might be that I'm just lucky though

During my avy 1 class they had us leave the probe in and dig to it, and I hit a pocket of air with the shovel and so ended up chopping through the probe - it was a Ortovox CF probe. They replaced it for free when i offered to pay for a new section - good service - the moral I suppose is to not attack your probe with a metal shovel, as it probably would have badly fucked up an aluminum probe as well.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by eirikainersharp

It seems sometimes like I dig pits all day, every day - and I'm talking pits to ground. The guys at ortovox gave me a PFA carbon probe at the beginging of the season and I have yet to have any problems with it. It might be that I'm just lucky though

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Give the handle a really hard yank - the kind of panic pull you might give if your buddy is dying under the snow. Maybe yours will be fine.

But I don't really see how they expected the cord to stay in the handle without any knots or loops, just some glue...

Too bad, it was the lightest 320cm probe by far.

The new PFA sure seems really nice to me, although I have yet to use either of mine (cf or alu) in the field.
BTW, today I lent my new BCA "quickie" 240 probe to some students in an avy course I was teaching - the ski area had helped us to bury a full-size (beacon-less) dummy with a snowcat a couple days earlier, so I figured it would be encased in some really hard concrete. (Which it was - took them about half an hour to find and extricate the thing!) The new BCA tensioning system is super fast & super secure, gathering some "oohs" and "ahhs" from the students upon assembly. (We broke another brand of probe, although it was a design no longer made, and it's probably been hammered on at a zillion previous courses, so I won't mention the brand.) I think they're coming out with a cf version next season for the ounce-counting set.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by davep

Give the handle a really hard yank - the kind of panic pull you might give if your buddy is dying under the snow. Maybe yours will be fine.

But I don't really see how they expected the cord to stay in the handle without any knots or loops, just some glue...

Too bad, it was the lightest 320cm probe by far.

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dang-it... now i gone broke my probe!
:cussing: