Ortovox CheckandRide

I have an Ortovox
CheckandRide. I’ve spent hours looking at it trying to “figure it out.” Like a lot of life, why it is a valuable piece of winter backcountry equipment and how it works was a lot easier to understand when I quit working to understand it and just started to use it.

The CheckandRide is a cylinder. The cylinder has different sections that twist or rotate. By following the components starting at the first one you spin the risk factors for an avalanche for the day and terrain you are getting ready to hike or ride. At the end by scanning the entire cylinder you have a good idea of the risk, for that day, sort of.

When I would work my way through the cylinder I kept waiting for it to say, go or don’t go or give me a reading on a scale, 1 is low risk 5 means you are going to die. It doesn’t do that. Day after day I worked the CheckandRide and did not get an answer.

But the CheckandRide works beautifully! It works in two ways. First to make the Ortovox
CheckandRide work it makes you check all of the factors to determine if you are going into Avalanche terrain. It needs information and you have to find the information for that day and that trip. It is a checklist that makes you check every factor. How often have you gone to terrain that you have hiked and ridden in the past, looked it over and made a mental decision based on past experience and what things “look like” today? The CheckandRide makes you look at all of the factors every time you go out, not just making a guess based on the last trip, a sunny day and desire.

The second way is the CheckandRide does give you a final evaluation. By using the CheckandRide, when you are done you know whether you should go or not go. It makes you think about every factor and makes you understand what you are doing so you know what you need to know. You can’t gauge an avalanche based on a scale. You need to factor in several other things. What is your risk scale? How much risk are you willing to take on? What about your friends you are riding with that day? Or maybe you are riding alone that day? All of that has to be factored into your day and the CheckandRide makes you do that.

I attached the Ortovox
CheckandRide to my ski pack with a small carabiner in a way that makes it swing and rattle when I grab the pack. Right away I’m reminded to work through every factor. It continues to rattle and thunk on things until I take it off and work through the eleven risk until I know where I am going and what I am getting into. The Ortovox
CheckandRide will safe your life because you have to understand the risk factors of your trip. The CheckandRide makes you find them before you go out the door.

Thanks Ortovox.