Marker has long been the king of burly, backcountry capable bindings with offerings like the Duke, Baron and Tour. But the Duke is about to get a whole lot bigger for the 2012/13 ski season when the new Duke EPF is released to the masses. Marker showed off the new Duke at the Outdoor Retailer 2012 Winter Market, and judging by the elaborate throne that lorded over the booth, they expect the Duke will continue to reign over the backcountry binding market. So what makes the new Duke so special? Marker says it all has to do with EPF...
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Eton is a company that specializes in radios and lighting for emergencies and outdoor applications. At the 2012 Outdoor Retailer Winter Market, Eton displayed their line of radios, some of which were donated to the Red Cross for use during recent disasters like the earthquake and tsunami in Japan. But for those of us looking for a little entertainment and information while in the outdoors, there are plenty of radios for that too. First, there’s the Eton FRX2, a hand turbine AM/FM analog weather radio. It features a hand crank connected to a dynamo motor that charges the battery,...
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You’ve all seen them, meatheads at the gym mixing their protein drinks right after a workout with a bottle they shake. Chance are, those bottles are a BlenderBottle, a unique utensil created by Sundesa LLC, a company based locally in Pleasant Grove, Utah. Well, BlenderBottle has expanded outside the gym and into the outdoors. These new versions were featured at their booth at the 2012 Outdoor Retailer Winter Market where it seems there are a variety of uses other than just mixing your meal replacement. Watching a demonstration at the booth revealed how the BlenderBottle works. Inside the bottle...
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Water resistant down was one of the big stories that created buzz throughout the 2012 Outdoor Retailer Winter Market. Two companies, Down Decor and Sierra Designs, introduced down insulation that repels water. As we all know, down is wonderfully warm on a cold day, but when wet, it becomes a worthless clump of soggy feathers, leading many outdoorsy types to choose synthetic insulation when purchasing jackets and sleeping bags. Well, it looks like synthetics are about to get sucker-punched by a feathered goose wing. The Sierra Designs booth on the Salt Palace Convention Center Floor was swarmed with attendees...
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One of the first products I saw at this year’s Outdoor Retailer Winter Market was also one of the coolest. At the Easton Mountain Products booth, a bunch of snowshoes were on display that were lousy with innovative and advanced features. But the show stopper was the Vo2 Racing Snowshoes. On the surface, the Easton Vo2 look like ordinary snowshoes… but take a closer look and you’ll see that there is no binding. That’s because these snowshoes are meant to be incorporated into your cross-training sneakers and boots. Think you have to end your trail running during the winter...
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At the 2012 Outdoor Retailer Winter Market All Mountain Demo, a lot of skis were available to test out on the slopes of Solitude Mountain Resort. There were so many in fact, that it would have been impossible to try them all in one day. I only clicked my boots into five skis… but of those skis, one pair was by far the most fun, giggle-like-a-school-girl party on two planks – the brand new Atomic Automatic. The Atomic Automatic is a new design from pro skiers Dana Flahr and Sage Cattabriga-Alosa. They collaborated on the ski specs, and one...
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Black Diamond has been busy these days, refining and expanding their backcountry ski offerings. The entire Efficient Series has been changed to what they’re now calling the FreeTour skis, and we can look forward to some new models to go with it. The Revert is a brand new design that the company is calling the “mini AMPerage” and the Megawatt has undergone a transformation into a carbon version for lighter tourability. I got to ski both skis at the 2012 Outdoor Retailer Winter Market All Mountain Demo, and came away with a few thoughts. First I skied the Black...
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Sarah Burke, the freestyle skier who revolutionized women’s halfpipe skiing, succumbed to her injuries sustained in a ski crash and died peacefully in a Salt Lake City hospital. According to KSL.com, University of Utah officials confirmed in a statement that Burke passed away at 9:22 a.m. while being surrounded by her family. As a result of the fall that occurred during a training run inside the halfpipe at Park City Mountain Resort, Burke suffered a ruptured vertebral artery, one of the four major arteries supplying blood to the brain. This led to severe bleeding. Emergency personnel performed CPR at...
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The Salomon Shogun is a ski that has been around for a while now, so I was surprised to see it gracing the tent walls at the Outdoor Retailer 2012 Winter Market All Mountain Demo. A bit sheepishly, I asked the tech manning the booth if there was a reason the Shogun was among Salomon’s slate of new skis to be released next year. Well, one reason was that they all were mounted with the new Salomon Guardian 16 binding that is all the buzz of the ski world right now. But the other reason is that the Shogun...
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Utah-based Surface Skis set up a tent at the 2012 Outdoor Retailer All Mountain Demo and showed off their new line of skis belonging to their Free Series. This new lineup of sticks focuses on backcountry ski touring and are built specific to that end. Among the line are the Powder-loving Live Free, mountaineering-ready Walk Free, and the Sherpa, which is a cross-country traveling skinny ski. Based on the snow conditions at Solitude that day, I grabbed the Walk Free and took them for a spin. The Surface Walk Free are light weight, but not so light as to...
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The 2012 Outdoor Retailer Winter Market is happening this week, and of course UtahOutside.com will be walking the Salt Palace Convention Center floor checking out all the new gear we can look forward to seeing in stores this fall. But this Outdoor Retailer show will be different, as every step I take will be monitored by a GeoPalz pedometer, which means you can win your own GeoPalz at the show. What does my step count have to do with Outdoor Retailer and you winning a GeoPalz of your own? Well, UtahOutside.com is participating in the GeoPalz Active Nation OR...
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