My First Avalanche Transceiver!

This week, five members of our gang, bought D3 Ortovox avalanche-transceivers and I can say it's quite a nice digital toy:) I am talking about a very simple - yet extremely reliable device, which transmits a strong signal and is used to search and pin-point victims burried under an avalanche. Of course, it's also quite crucial to have an avalanche probe and shovel that both assist you in effective rescue of the victim(s). I could talk for hours about avalanche transceivers and other equipment; but luckily my colleague blogger Edo did an extensive research and wrote almost everything there is to it! Check it out here (Slovenian).
  There is, however, an issue that I will touch briefly! Don't worry, I will not try to convince you to buy an avalanche transciever and I will not moralize how irresponsible (young) people are - visiting our "dangerous" mountains without the proper safety equipment (crampons, ice-axe, avalanche transceiver, probe, shovel, helmet, first-aid, radio station, etc). I have heard such moralizing from older alpinists way too many times - Bullshit! They criticize young people with new skiing jackets, freeride skies, shiny ski-boots and are shocked how irresponsible these youngsters are without helmets, transmitters, shovels and so on! Yes, principally they are right - but still, they are just typical hypocrites. I have talked to more honest older alpinists, who have admitted that only 20 years ago, nobody in Slovenia had any safety equipment at all. They joked that if you met someone with a helmet in the mountains, you could call him a BASTARTD - because he was a foreigner and thought you where saying "HELLO" to him. The safety culture in Slovenian mountains was simply very low, while equipment was expensive and hard to get! So nobody will tell me that the first piece of equipment that they bought was a helmet or an avalanche transmitter (in theory that would be the right thing to do!). Today the situation is a lot better, however we still live in reality, where it would take a millionaire to buy all the equipment at once. It takes thousands and thousands of Euros to have everything you need for ski-touring and extreme skiing (not to mention rock and ice climbing). I have been buying separate pieces of equipment each year. And if somebody wants to call me light-minded, buying avalanche equipement in my fifth year of winter mountaineering - go ahead. After what you read you might think differently, however, safety is my number 1 concern when I go to the mountains. I believe that instead of pointing fingers, we should educate our youngsters and try to upgrade the Slovenian mountaineering culture through clubs and associations. The goal is not to convince people how stupid they are, going to mountains without all the proper equipment, but instead to encourage them to become more responsible and think with their own head. I believe that some of the safety equipment should be subsidized by our mountain association and become more available. Maybe someday everybody has an avalanche transceiver.. Enjoy the mountains and ski with your head, even if you're not wearing a helmet! (Joke)