Backcountry radio company creates community channels to foster extra safety in Colorado’s Rocky Mountains
Rocky Talkie/Courtesy photo
Being well-prepared before embarking into the backcountry is essential in preventing fatal accidents from occurring. While most people know to never embark into avalanche territory without a transceiver, probe, and shovel, many backcountry enthusiasts often overlook how useful a walkie talkie can be in communicating with other individuals when cell service isn’t available.
Colorado adventure partners and longtime friends Bryce Jones and Alex Page have used several walkie talkies for rock climbing and winter sports over the years, but after witnessing near disaster, the duo felt inspired to create a communication system centered around safety.
Hailing from Maryland, the longtime childhood friends who reconnected while in grad school at the University of Michigan were inspired after they witnessed a “pretty serious accident” while climbing at Fisher Towers in Moab.
On the same climbing trip in Moab, Jones and Page had brought their own radios for the multi-pitch climb, but by the time the duo had completed the route, the radios had died and were completely useless if an urgent situation had unraveled.
With the safety of backcountry adventurers in mind, they decided to began working on prototypes for radios out of duo’s apartment in Denver. After a series of tests and tweaks, Rocky Talkie officially launched as a company in 2019, with the Mountain Radio to be the first product to be introduced on the market.
Since the company’s inception five years ago, Rocky Talkie has steadily grown and even introduced its second radio — the 5 Watt Radio — in November of last year.
“We have two radios now, and they are built with adventure in mind really from the ground up,” Rocky Talkie Director of Marketing Erin Moeller said. “The radios both have rechargeable, lithium-ion batteries, and they are cool treated. That means that the Mountain Radio battery lasts typically three to five days on a single charge, and the 5 Watt Radio lasts anywhere between four to seven days on a single charge.”
Rocky Talkie’s radios also have a range that allows users to feel better about their safety while exploring through the backcountry.
“The Mountain Radio operates at the full 2 watts of power for a FRS (Family Radio Service) radio, which means line of sight you can get 25-plus miles. In the mountains, you can expect 1 to 5 miles,” Moeller said.
With the 5 Watt Radio being a General Mobile Radio Service (GMRS), the Rocky Talkie’s newest radio can reach up to 35 miles and 1-8 miles in mountainous areas.
Overall, Rocky Talkie is hoping that their radios can foster strong communication in the backcountry before accidents take place.
In an effort to establish stable backcountry communication, Rocky Talkie has recently partnered with several organizations and communities to launch the Backcountry Community Channels Initiative.
The initiative centers around popular winter and summer recreation routes where a community radio channel can be used in that zone in order to inform other nearby outdoor thrill-seekers of an avalanche or hazard.
“It increases communication group to group,” Moeller said. “If you are already going out and everybody in your group has a walkie talkie or radio and you are communicating together, that is awesome – but taking it one step further to encourage group-to-group communication. That way anyone who is in a specific zone will be able to communicate to another group on this predesignated channel and privacy code.”
Especially in the winter where every backcountry explorer can affect the safety of the next person to set foot on a certain slope, the community channels have the potential to keep people safe and keep individuals from being swept up in an avalanche.
In its first season rolling out the Backcountry Community Channels Initiative, Rocky Talkie has formed partnerships with the Colorado Avalanche Information Center and onX Backcountry. Both organizations have helped create custom maps for each of the community channel zones for users to reference when out in the backcountry.
With no community channels so far established in Pitkin County, Rocky Talkie encourages people to add zones to the channels initiative by submitting a form located on the company’s website.
To submit a community channel, visit RockyTalkie.com/pages/communitychannels. For more information, visit RockyTalkie.com.
