Comments on: SIA 2013: Arva

By: Lino

Lino — Tue, 04 Mar 2014 16:01:26 +0000

Beacons are commonly called arva’s in Europe after the French acronym “Appareil de Recherche de Victimes d’Avalanche” (avalanche victims research instrument) by which they have been known. ARVA has recently been registered as a trademark, so the term cannot be ‘officially’ used anymore to designate the device. In common language evryone still refers to it as arva, at least in Italian, Franch, Spanish and, almost certainly, German.

Lino

By: Morroi

Morroi — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 22:30:38 +0000

The funny thing is that I don’t own an Arva and neither do most of the people I go skiing with, but we still call them ARVAS.

I guess they (ARVA) were the first brand to really make an impact in the market and the brand has become a synonym of the object itself. A bit like Frigidaire in the States and France in the 50s and 60s (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frigidaire).

Keep well!

Morroi

By: Frank

Frank — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 14:43:53 +0000

Thanks for confirming my Pyrenees story, Morroi! Certainly not the case here in North America, where Arva is virtually unheard of compared to Ortovox, Pieps, BCA, etc. Nice looking stuff, though.

By: Morroi

Morroi — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 08:17:13 +0000

Arva is actually so big here in Europe that I just realized I don’t know the name for “avalanche transceiver” or “beacon” in Spanish (my language)… and even if I knew, I don’t think anyone would understand me!!

Nice blog. Greetings from the Pyrenees!

Morroi