Skinny Slings and Beacon Batteries

Slings keep getting thinner and thinner, to the point where they wouldn't work even for the most optimistic G-String in Vegas. Kolin over at BD just did some more research on joining these slings to others, interesting results. Thanks to Chris Willie for the link. Kolin's pages are always good reading.

There's also been some talk of late about avalanche beacons and batteries, just had the following forwarded to me from Steve Christie at Backcountry Access via Garth Lemke, thanks:

"“Batteries: Three AAA/LR03 alkaline batteries. Do not use rechargeable,
lithium, Oxyride or any other non-alkaline battery.”

The Powerpix batteries increase the voltage of the unit. This in turn
increases the background noise level in the beacon. You will see this issue
with all avalanche beacons, not just the Tracker.

If you would like to post my response on the internet chat rooms that you
frequent I would appreciate it. I am getting this email quite often, it
seems to be circulating out there in internet land."

WG