The North Face incorporated the RECCO avalanche rescue system into seven of their Prodigy pieces for this winter season. By integrating RECCO reflectors into these peices, Recco feels that TNF has taken a proactive stand for supplemental safety technology.

“I think it's appropriate for who we are as a brand, to promote and provide as an accessory to our products, this type of feature,” explains Krak Arntson, snowsports director at The North Face. “I think that it's good stewardship for us within the industry to promote avalanche safety. Offering RECCO as a feature on our products is a way to bring more awareness to the consumer and the snowsports participant.”

Peter York, Squaw Valley ski patroller and Tahoe Nordic Search and Rescue member, sees The North Face's effort as providing a benefit to all rescue operations. “It makes all patrol jobs–everyone's part of the job–a little easier,” he says. “The more people have these reflectors in their garments, the better chance we are going to have of a live recovery if we have a slide within the resort or out of bounds.”

This season's introduction is merely the first stage in the relationship between RECCO and The North Face. “We have seven this year, we have approximately 20 for fall 2006 and we anticipate more than that for Fall 2007,” Arntson says. “What you will find as we move forward, is all our high-end pieces that are desired by individuals who are more likely to be going out into higher-risk areas, that those products will have RECCO as a feature.”

Arntson predicts the impact of the RECCO technology will be most strongly felt in the future. “One thing I like to think about is when we get more years down the road and there is more RECCO® out there, whose life will be saved in time, what will that mean and who will that person be,” he says. “It could be a friend or a relative–you just don't know. But, in the future, certainly the more live recoveries that will happen. And the value of those, there is no measurement of that value.”