A ‘voluntary recall’ has been issued for the Pieps DSP Sport, Pieps DSP Pro and Pieps DSP Ice avalanche transceivers.
Black Diamond and Pieps have finally announced a recall of the DSP avalanche transceivers that have been blamed for at least one death of a backcountry skier since 2017. In October, Pieps, a European producer of avalanche safety equipment and Black Diamond, its U.S. retailer, came under fire with allegations that their Pieps DSP avalanche transceivers could inadvertently switch from “send” to “search” mode, rendering the device useless to the wearer should they be caught in an avalanche and get tumbled around, switching the mode. Back in October, Pieps and Black Diamond asserted that their devices worked “above industry standards,” but that nonetheless they would replace any of the affected transceivers (the DSP Pro, DSP Sport, and DSP Ice), giving the customer an upgrade to the newest version for only $100. Now, months later, Pieps and Black Diamond have announced a “voluntary recall” for the devices.
In the comments of the Instagram post (above) where Black Diamond announced the recall, customers expressed frustration that it had taken this long for the recall to be issued. Furthermore, in the months leading up to the full recall, Black Diamond/Pieps had given customers with a faulty transceiver the option to upgrade to the newer version that doesn’t suffer from the same downfall for $100. Now, those same customers are wondering whether they will get refunded their $100 after the device they had traded in is being recalled.
Pro skier Cody Townsend also expressed frustration at the lack of clarity around the situation. “Nearly every avy company I’ve worked with has had recalls, it’s part of the game, but so far, those companies have owned it, fixed it and made better products because of it,” Cody said over Instagram Stories. “So it still baffles me that BD/Pieps has had such reluctance to admit a flaw and fix the problem. If they did, none of this would have ever been an issue to the magnitude it has been.”
The new fix for the problem comes in the form of a hard-shell carrying case for the avalanche transceiver that locks it into “send” mode when worn as shown in the video below.
You can find out more about the Pieps recall here, and you can find out more about the Black Diamond recall (effective for U.S. customers) here.
