Winter ISPO 2011: Day 4 - Technical Treats

This is a preview of a member exclusive premium article.

Since ISPO is a winter trade show, the focus is on snow and ice activities, as well as garments that insulate and protect. By now you may have had your fill of down jackets and 7-ounce smocks. So today we bring you some of the more technical gear from the show. Unfortunately, we did not discover anything new in lightweight shelters. We hope you find something interesting in the following run-down of stoves, shovels, poles, crampons, harnesses, and more!

ARTICLE OUTLINE

Introduction
Soto
Providus
Dynafit
Fizan
Grivel
Kohla
Arva
GV Snowshoes
CAMP
On The Softer Side of Things
And Finally, A Question of Style Versus Utility

# WORDS: 1860
# PHOTOS: 18

--- End of free preview ---

Member Exclusive

A Premium or Unlimited Membership* is required to view the rest of this article.

Membership Login

* A Basic Membership is required to view Member Q&A events

This topic is empty.

Viewing 22 posts - 1 through 22 (of 22 total)

Author

Posts
Feb 9, 2011 at 7:59 pm #1268957

Addie Bedford
BPL Member

@addiebedford
Locale: Montana

Companion forum thread to:

Winter ISPO 2011: Day 4 – Technical Treats

Feb 9, 2011 at 8:18 pm #1694784

Mary D
BPL Member

@hikinggranny
Locale: Gateway to Columbia River Gorge

Danny and Kristin, I hope you got to sample some beer before leaving!

Special thanks to Addie for working late to post these articles! It's 9 pm where she is and 5 am in Europe!

Interesting series of articles!

Feb 9, 2011 at 9:29 pm #1694801

Robert Cowman
BPL Member

@rcowman
Locale: Canadian Rockies

Arcteryx did it first on the sidewinder jacket. 5 years ago and is still made.
North face has on on its sedition GTX jacket for the past 3 years
Patagoina has one on the R1 hoody for years
Eddie bauer has on on the expedition weight hoody and the bat hang hoody.
and many more styles…

they've been around for a while and are on more jackets every season.

Feb 10, 2011 at 2:16 am #1694846

Martin RJ Carpenter
Member

@martincarpenter

Not important at all, but I wonder if Klattermusen didn't do it first. Certainly nearly everything they do has angled zips and they're the sort of slightly insane people who could well have done such things early.

Like that mithril kevlar sweater they do made entirely of Keprotec…. (Objectively pretty insane of course but amusing.).

Feb 10, 2011 at 3:11 am #1694851

Kristin Tennessen
BPL Member

@ktenness
Locale: Bay Area

Klättermusen zipper designs are definitely about function, not fashion. Their top layer garment zippers run from left hip to right shoulder. Their bottom layer garment zippers run from right hip to left shoulder. You can see the difference here. The rep told us this layering design is for weatherproofing, and to prevent bulk.

Feb 10, 2011 at 4:10 am #1694857

Danny Milks
BPL Member

@dannymilks
Locale: SF Bay Area

There is a difference between the angled zippers (pictured above, and used by Klattermussen) and perfectly vertical zippers with a curve at the top (R1, Arc Teryx, etc) which avoid the chin.

I am not sure if there is a more technical name for angled zippers. If anyone knows more about this, please chime in!

Feb 10, 2011 at 7:44 am #1694907

David Chenault
BPL Member

@davec
Locale: Queen City, MT

Those Camp race spikes are great! The web center bar seems like a decent idea (presumably the spikes are alu and thus not meant for walking on talus), but using the tech heel for security is fantastic. Should work better than any other heel attachment.

Feb 10, 2011 at 12:05 pm #1695020

Kathy A Handyside
BPL Member

@earlymusicus
Locale: Southeastern Michigan

Great coverage of an interesting trade show! Thanks so much. I love looking at gear from companies not well-known here in the U.S.

I'm really interested in the Soto stove.

Feb 10, 2011 at 12:14 pm #1695025

. .
BPL Member

@biointegra
Locale: Puget Sound

I wonder if they work with Tele boots as well – It looks like they could, if the front bale were wide enough.

Feb 10, 2011 at 12:29 pm #1695029

. Callahan
BPL Member

@aeronautical
Locale: London, UK.

The Kohla X-Light Shovel handle fitting is simply a copy of the Ortovox Cougar!

Feb 10, 2011 at 2:51 pm #1695080

James holden
BPL Member

@bearbreeder-2

someone needs to do a test on these hybrid shovels to make sure they can be used in avi conditions .. hard packed icy snow, ice chunks, etc …

plastic shovels are known to be inadequate … hopefully hybrids will prove to be otherwise … without such test, IMO lives are at risk due to fancy marketing and the the quest for a few ozs

Feb 10, 2011 at 4:59 pm #1695129

David Chenault
BPL Member

@davec
Locale: Queen City, MT

Aaron, the tele boots would have to have tech heel fittings.

Feb 10, 2011 at 6:40 pm #1695188

ROBERT TANGEN
Spectator

@robertm2s
Locale: Lake Tahoe

I'm looking at a pair of Scarpa Spirit 3, Dynafit-compatible ski boots as I type (well, between typing). There are two grooves in the heel, which spread out into a "T" shape. The Dynafit binding (called "tech" ever since the patents expired) has a heel piece with two horizontal prongs. To get into the heel piece, one positions the boot heel above the prongs, then steps down. Now the heel is locked down. For free-heel skiing, one rotates the heel piece so a little platform is below the boot heel, and one can proceed like using 3-pin bindings, BUT telemarking is NOT possible, because the toe piece couldn't take the twisting forces. Maybe someday.

Feb 10, 2011 at 7:43 pm #1695227

Douglas Ray
Member

@dirtbagclimber
Locale: Pacific Northwest

I'm quite interested in the soto stove. I've been fairly happy with my inverted-canister set-up for winter but it does have it's disadvantages, particularly for long trips. The pump unit is a little heavier than some but it needs to hold more pressure to make the atomiser work I presume, and it looks sturdier than msr's latest offerings.

I could see this stove being excellent for programs that have been using liquid fuel stoves for years due to fuel cost. If it solves the efficiency problems of traditional white-gas stoves it could be a real weight-saver on a long trip with lots of cooking, or a long winter trip where all of your water comes from melting.

Feb 10, 2011 at 10:52 pm #1695285

Madeleine Landis
BPL Member

@yurtie
Locale: Central Oregon

Since Ibex never got their wool sport top produced w/o flaws this winter, sob, those 2 companies you showed were interesting. The Norwegian Devold's strap top and hipster look divine for our endless OR winters.. and ditto the wool fleece bra. Oh how I've longed for something like that for xc skiing… will you be letting us know if/when they become available in the US? Thanks
Madeleine aka Bling

Feb 11, 2011 at 1:14 am #1695316

Marco A. Sánchez
Member

@marcoasn
Locale: The fabulous Pyrenees

The Cilao OZ 22 Ultra Race harness is an even lighter CE and UIAA-certified harness (82 g / 2.9 oz)

However, I prefer the "heavier" Camp harness, since I don't like Cilao's velcro closure.

Cheers.

Feb 13, 2011 at 7:49 am #1696091

Danny Milks
BPL Member

@dannymilks
Locale: SF Bay Area

Callahan: this is the shovel you are referencing: Ortovox Cougar Avalanche Shovel. The blade is made of lexan polycarbonate, it weighs 630g and retails for $52 in the US.

Kathy and Douglas – The new Soto stove looks really promising. It should be available in the states in March.

Medeleine – We will be keeping track of Devold and let you know if, and when, they get US distribution. You might be able to find some specialty internet shops or UK-based companies that would sell to you. Of all the wool companies at ISPO (and there were a ton!)we only found that Devold and Aclima made wool bras.

Marco – thanks for adding the link to Cilao race harness. It iss good to know that there is another option for people who think CAMP's 95gram harness is just too darn heavy :)

Thanks everybody for the comments and questions!

Feb 16, 2011 at 9:46 am #1697388

F. Thomas Matica
Member

@ftm1776
Locale: Vancouver, WA

I've always wondered why MSR hadn't built a better simmer feature into the Whisperlite stoves….and lightened them up by the way. Maybe this will give them the incentive. Thanks to Japan again! I've learned to manage with my Whisperlite, but may go to the SOTO after I learn more about. Maybe in a test from BPL???

Feb 17, 2011 at 11:12 am #1697891

Stephen M
BPL Member

@stephen-m
Locale: Way up North

I wonder can the Soto Multi fuel stove can be used with Gas canisters.

Mar 20, 2011 at 11:26 am #1711626

drowning in spam
Member

@leaftye
Locale: SoCal

It looks like the Soto stove has a name now. It's the Muka. It looks impressive. Has anyone tried it yet?

Soto Muka

Mar 20, 2011 at 6:12 pm #1711803

Rakesh Malik
Member

@tamerlin
Locale: Cascadia

I used my 20% member coupon at REI to order one, but it wasn't on the shelves yet. I'll have it mid-week, and will hopefully get a chance to try it out later in the week.

Jan 3, 2012 at 3:21 pm #1819311

Adam Klags
BPL Member

@klags
Locale: Northeast USA

"The FM300G is a 90g/3.2oz aluminum stove that looks like a lot of other stoves on the market. Almost hidden in the display case was a titanium version (pictured above) of the FM300G that weighs 63g/2.2oz. The display case was sealed, so we couldn’t take a closer look at the stove. Cost, availability and details were unavailable, even after multiple inquiries. We are waiting to receive the product catalogue through e-mail."

Funny looking at this now, I can clearly see that the stove in question appears to be a monotauk gnat. it just doesn't have the orange bottom. It is identical. Funny. I wonder if the stove is licensed to multiple companies? The only thing that makes no sense is the wieght, since the gnat, not this stove, is actually the world's lightest, at just under 1.72oz have a look:

http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/sotm11_monatauk_gnat_review.html
Author

Posts