This was the first time I have attended the Outdoor Retailer Trade Show in Salt Lake City, UT and it was pretty incredible. Aside from seeing people like Alex Honnold, the incredible Steve House and legends like Fred Beckey and Jim Whittaker, we got to see every piece of gear you may want, need or otherwise. But still in the sea of cool new things certain items blew us away. - Paul One of the greatest things about going to a show like OR is not only do you get to see the latest and greatest of what is new in the outdoor industry, but you have the opportunity to really see the depth of what many of these companies produce. Often as a consumer you only get to see what your local retailer has decided to sell, and because they have to represent a diverse option of brands you only see a small portion of what the brand offers. It is really quite impressive to go and talk to a company like LOWA or Sea to Summit and see how many items they actually make and how diverse their product lines are. Often you have no idea how many cool things one company makes until you see them all in one place. There were many things that caught our eye, but here are the top 2 things that each of us are now dreaming about. -Saveria
Paul's most coveted items:
Patagonia was kind enough to let us check out their Mixed Guide Pants, a soft shellpant that has H2No panels in high exposure zones. Basically it is the best of having soft shell and hard shell pants in one pair of pants. They come in both Men's and Women's and also have a Mixed Guide Hoody. I hope that one day this will reside in my closet.
The booth I visited the most however was the Cilogear booth, they make packs. They make packs to order in Portland, Oregon and they are works of art, functional art. Made of super tough light weight materials they are the pick of mountain guides and climbers alike, in fact instead of having a catalog they just had a copy of the most recent Patagonia catalog that had a climber on the cover tackling an amazing route with a Cilo affixed to his back.
Saveria's most coveted items:
When you are small and have to carry all your gear weight and size are critical. Ounces add up making a big difference. That is why the new Sea to Summit Spark SpI sleeping bag caught my eye! It packs down to the size of a grapefruit, only weighs 12oz, boasts 850 fill and uses Ultra-Dry Down technology. It is rated at 46 degrees, but even if you bring a liner to increase the warmth, the two combined are still smaller and lighter than most sleeping bags. At this point I can only dream about how great it would be to have on summer backpacking trips. Coming out in August 2013 it is at the top of my wish list for things I covet!
The other item I was super impressed by was the Women's version of the LOWA Weisshorn GTXMountaineering boot made for mixed alpine routes. This boot will be in market Fall of 2013. It was great to see LOWA making so many women specific mountaineering and technical boots. The other boot that I may not be able to wait for is the Cevedale GTX. This boot was made for the Sierra's where you have amazing 3 season backpacking with enough 14k+ peaks that you may encounter year-round snow.
Keep an eye out for our next OR blog.... "Coolest Things That Fit in Your Pocket!"