The Avalanche Backpack Arva Airbag Reactor Tour 25 Ultralight in Check

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What is special about the Arva Airbag Tour 25 Ultralight Reactor backpack? It uses the airbag system that focuses on fast and light with its minimalist design and low weight, and thus finally makes it usable for the ski touring segment.

The Tour 25 Ultralight from Arva is a lightweight ski mountaineering airbag backpack with well-organised compartments for everything you need for a tour or even a day of freeriding. This backpack stands out for its lightness, because despite the airbag system, the weight remains uniquely low. The only drawback: the load volume can be insufficient if you need to carry crampons or other glacier or high-altitude touring equipment. Also missing is a separate compartment for shovel and probe, which would have made rescue manoeuvres faster. For the target group of "fast and easy tours" it is perfect.

The backpack was tested on several days, spread over ski tours with altitude differences of over 1000 metres and freeride days with the lifts in high mountain regions between 1700 and 3000 metres. Although I studied the system, I never managed to pull the lever and deploy the airbag on these trips.

Arva makes this backpack in one size fits all. I am 185 centimetres tall and for my back the size is perfect. It has also been worn by shorter people (around 160 centimetres) for whom the back was too long.

The avalanche backpack Arva Airbag Reactor Tour 25 Ultralight backpack has a single compartment that holds the airbag and two elastic straps for attaching the probe and shovel handle. The shovel, on the other hand, has no place of its own and must be stored loosely in this main compartment.

Once stored the safety tools the 25 litre volume is a bit small if you need to carry other equipment in addition to jackets, gloves, such as a climbing harness, crampons, some carabiners and slings.

In avalanche emergencies is important to carry out rescue operations quickly, but the two elastic straps that attach the shovel and probe to the backrest are awkward and not exactly easy to handle. This is due to the interference with the internal structure containing the airbag. This difficulty can costs valuable time.

The two side pockets on the belt, one with and the other without a zip, are very practical.

In these pockets you can store, for example, bars, gels, gloves, but also ski skins if not very bulky, For those who want to have a soft flask at hand without having to remove the backpack, there is a practical pocket for it on one of the two shoulder straps.

If it weren't for the airbag inside, the backpack could easily look like it was made for an ultra trail race, from the construction to the feel you get when you hold it in your hand.

The avalanche backpack is very breathable and very stable if you adjust the shoulder straps and harness properly. It really feels like you're not wearing it.

The shoulder straps themselves are made of light and breathable material without being annoying even after hours of climbing (which is often the case with some backpacks with light shoulder straps). The side pockets offer the possibility to have everything you need at hand while climbing, as well as the holder for the soft bottle, so you never have to take the backpack off.

Alike in the ascent mode, the Arva bag almost feels like you have nothing on your back on the descent. You really don't feel the safety loop at all.

The lever to open the airbag, once unlocked (a very simple mechanism), is easily accessible in an emergency.

The Tour 25 Ultralight is suitable for ski tourers who have high demands on the weight of their equipment, but also for those who previously found airbag systems too heavy. With the Tour 25 Ultralight, there is no longer any excuse not to take the airbag backpack on every tour. Because it is so compact, it can also be used for freeride days on the lifts.

However, it is a backpack for one day ski tours where it is not necessary to take additional equipment or mountaineering gear.