Winter ISPO 2011: Day 4 – Technical Treats

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!

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.

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.).

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.

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!

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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!

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???

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

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

Soto Muka

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.

"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