As the name suggests, the Ortovox Carbon Pro probes are made of carbon. In combination with the slightly larger diameter compared to typical aluminum probes, they are therefore very stiff and bend very little when probing. Even in hard snow, it is possible to probe relatively well even in unfavorable, deep burial conditions. The tensioning system is well designed. All you have to do is pull and the probe is already taut, the fixation is automatic and requires no further action from the user. I also like the clearly visible and, above all, permanent labeling with centimeter markings. With several probes that I have used before, the labeling was no longer legible after a short time. Of course, the centimeter markings are not really important for probing, but sometimes you might want to know more precisely how much snow there is, and especially when digging snow profiles it is also practical if you can use the probe as a scale. The rubberized handle of the Carbon Pro probes is nice and grippy and prevents hands in gloves from simply sliding down the probe when probing in hard snow.
Gear of the Week | Ortovox Carbon Pro 240+ Avalanche Probe
Extendable carbon probe
The fact that the probe is only 240cm long could be seen as a disadvantage. However, Ortovox offers a remedy here with the 240+ version. With this model, the tip of the probe can be unscrewed, allowing any number of segments to be screwed in as extensions. Of course, this is nowhere near as quick as tensioning the probe, but offers the advantage of a much more torsion-resistant connection, which is an advantage when probing at depths of several meters, which rarely happens anyway.
Since the carbon does not get cold as quickly, it freezes to damp layers of snow less easily than metal. Of course, this is less interesting in an emergency, but rather when handling the probe in general (for example during glaciological fieldwork)...
The unscrewable tip allows extension segments to be screwed in.
The unscrewable tip allows extension segments to be screwed in.
This article has been automatically translated by DeepL with subsequent editing. If you notice any spelling or grammatical errors or if the translation has lost its meaning, please write an e-mail to the editors.
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hTranslated from German.