Black Diamond Alias Pack with Avalung
Read this before anything else in the post. The AvaLung line is discontinued, and in January 2011 the US Consumer Product Safety Commission recalled around 3,500 AvaLung packs from the 2010 production run because the air intake tubing could crack in cold temperatures, causing the unit not to work and posing a suffocation hazard. The recalled models were the Anarchist, Agent, Bandit, Covert, Outlaw and Revelation. The Alias reviewed here was not on that list, but it is from the same discontinued family, and any AvaLung you can now buy is second-hand and more than a decade old.
So treat this as a record of what the pack was, not a recommendation. The Alias was a streamlined top-loader with the breathing tube integrated into the harness, and it was genuinely well made: a clean panel, a dedicated tool pocket and a carry system that worked with skis or a board.
What has replaced it. Avalanche airbag packs became the mainstream answer, and the battery-and-fan systems are now the ones worth looking at because you can fly with them and practise a deployment without paying for a refill. Black Diamond and several others sell them.
What has not changed and never will. No pack is the safety system. A beacon, a shovel, a probe, the practice to use all three quickly, and the judgement to not be on that slope in the first place are the safety system. Every device on top of that is a margin, and a margin is worth having only once the basics are in place.
Part of the guide to ski and snowboard.